The Emperor of our age had gone mad!
By the time the rumour carried over the palace walls, the situation was already past undoing.
The Emperor had gone beyond tyrant and become a madman, and the people of the Empire had become a congregation of fanatics who worshipped him.
A wind of blood and slaughter blew across the continent.
Countless kingdoms burned. Surrender was not accepted.
One year.
That was how long it took for every kingdom and every city on the continent to vanish from the map.
But they say heroes are born in an age of chaos, and that the most brilliant hope shines brightest in the deepest dark.
One man drew his sword against the Emperor.
People laughed at him.
But when the Empire's fortresses fell one after another, and the Empire's legions went down with them, no one laughed anymore.
People praised him, calling him the Hero.
As report after report of victory came in, the heroes who had been hiding from the Emperor's eyes revealed themselves one by one.
The one they called the Saintess stood with the Hero.
Under the Saintess's miracles, the wind of slaughter the Emperor had raised came to a halt.
The one they called the Archmage joined the Hero's party.
Before the magic the Archmage called down, the advancing Imperial Army fell back.
The one they called the Blacksmith forged arms and armour for the Hero and his companions.
The weapons the Blacksmith made shattered the Imperial Army's armour and shields without mercy.
The one they called the Spirit Wielder came to find the Hero.
The spirits the Spirit Wielder commanded embraced all things in creation, save only the Emperor and his Empire.
Blades glittered under the light of the rising sun, and the roar of the counterattack went up.
With the Hero and the heroes at its centre, the allied forces were formed.
Gathering every strength on the continent, the allied forces declared war on the Emperor and the Empire.
And then.
......Everyone died.
The Saintess's miracles were nothing but a cheap trick before the Emperor's supernatural power.
The Archmage's magic turned to ash and scattered before the Emperor's mana.
The Blacksmith's weapons were reduced to toys before the Emperor's sacred treasures.
The Spirit Wielder's spirits submitted before the Emperor's strength.
The allied forces were trampled and ravaged by the Imperial Army.
The Emperor won.
And we lost.
But one man alone.
The Hero had not been defeated.
A man staggering, leaning on my shoulder.
The supreme commander of the allied forces, the Hero Ian.
Ian had not died yet.
The allied forces had been routed and the heroes were dead, but Ian lived.
No — we had kept him alive.
The allied forces and the heroes had all given their lives so that Ian alone would live.
And now, it was my turn to keep Ian alive.
"Stop it, Adrian. It's pointless."
Ian's voice reached me, calling my name.
I ignored it.
Even now the Imperial Army was in pursuit.
Right now, we couldn't afford to stop moving.
"You know it too. That there's no hope left."
Ian's voice came again.
There wasn't a trace of strength left in it.
There wasn't much I could say to him.
"Don't talk like that."
Ian is the hope of our allied forces.
Whatever it takes, Ian alone has to live.
As long as Ian is alive, the allied forces can rise again someday.
"Please, Adrian."
Ian's dead eyes turned toward me again.
The look in his eyes at the very edge of life.
What was the reason I couldn't bring myself to look away from it?
Was it because Ian was the continent's Hero and the hope of the allied forces, and also my closest friend?
"I don't want to watch anyone else be sacrificed for me. Not anymore."
A request that might be my closest friend's last.
"......"
If I followed my heart, I would have granted my friend's request.
But I have a duty to keep Ian alive.
If it comes to it, I have to keep Ian alive even by throwing away my own life.
That is the last mission given to me.
Right now Ian is...... only a little tired.
"...Let's rest for a bit."
After long hesitation, I finally stopped walking.
When I sat Ian down against a tree in the forest, a deep regret settled into his eyes.
Defeat in the final battle against the Emperor.
And a total defeat, at that.
If he felt no regret, that would be the strange thing.
"Adrian. Do you know the moment I regret most, now that it's over?"
"When you confessed to the Saintess and got shot down."
"No."
"There's a moment you regret more than that?"
"Yeah."
"When?"
"When I had to kill your little sister."
My sister?
Ah, now that he mentions it, this bastard did kill my sister.
"There was nothing else you could've done."
My sister was a fallen witch.
Known as the Monarch of Frost.
A being the Emperor himself acknowledged as a "Monarch," who became a core force of the Imperial Army and slaughtered countless comrades of the allied forces with her own hands.
Killing a sister like that was something that simply had to be done.
It wasn't a matter of resenting Ian or anything of the sort.
More than that, she was my sister in name only.
She was the adopted daughter the family took in to replace me, the wastrel of the house.
A stranger without a single drop of my blood.
We were not close enough for anything you could call a bond.
And killing my sister had originally been an order the allied forces handed to me.
It was a kind of loyalty test.
With my sister being the Monarch of Frost, a core force of the Imperial Army, it was a natural measure from the allied forces' point of view.
I accepted the order without any particular resistance.
But Ian, this bastard, talked me out of it.
She's still family, he said, and he stepped in to do it in my place.
Family.
That's a very difficult word for me.
"So how was she. My sister."
"Your sister...... was unreal."
"You crazy bastard. I always wondered why the Saintess turned you down. Now I get it."
"She really was unreal. What am I supposed to do about it?"
Ian cackled and laughed.
It looked like a crude joke, but I knew that wasn't the meaning behind it.
Ian's left arm, hanging empty now.
The one who took that left arm of his was my sister.
Because of it, the allied forces' strength was greatly weakened.
The reason we lost the final battle might well have been this.
The only being who could stand against the Emperor was in this state, after all.
"Back then, was there really no way other than killing your sister? Did she have to die? That's what I regret most."
"Leave the Monarch of Frost alive? Don't tell me you had a thing for my sister."
"Your sister was the prettiest person I've ever seen. Prettier than the Saintess, I'm telling you."
"Is that something the Hero should be saying about a witch? You deserved to get shot down by the Saintess."
At my words Ian cackled again.
But his eyes were still full of regret.
Ian regretted killing my sister.
And so I regretted what happened back then as well.
It should have been me, not Ian.
I should have been the one to kill my sister.
Honestly, I don't know whether I could have killed her.
I probably would have died instead.
But I could have protected Ian's left arm.
Then no one knows which way the final battle would have gone.
At the very least, we wouldn't have lost this badly.
"Adrian, it isn't your fault."
"I know. It's your fault for being weak enough to get wrecked by my sister."
"Wrecked, my ass. I lost an arm, but I won."
Ian and I looked at each other and snorted out a laugh.
"Adrian."
"What."
"I've got one last favour to ask. Think you could hear me out?"
"If you drop the word 'last.'"
"......"
Ian didn't answer that he would.
"So what is it?"
"Promise you'll do it and I'll tell you."
"Then don't tell me."
"......"
"...Fine. I'll promise, all right? What is it?"
"Eat me."
......What?
The shock of Ian's words left my mind blank for a moment.
"Absorb me with your Predation."
Predation.
My ability to absorb the powers a living creature possessed by eating that creature's heart.
Beasts, monsters, insects, vermin — even people.
If it was a living thing with a heart, it did not discriminate.
It was an ability that grew infinitely stronger as time went on, so it could fairly be called a broken ability.
And even so, it never surpassed Ian.
Even holding the power of Predation, I couldn't come close to the tips of Ian's toes.
That was exactly why I had to keep Ian alive now.
Even if the price was my own life.
"Adrian, all this time the Emperor has been desperate to kill me. He was willing to lose most of the Empire's forces just to put me down somehow. Why do you think that is?"
"Because you're the only Hero who can stand against the Emperor."
"No."
Ian shook his head firmly and went on.
"It's because I'm the only method of stopping the Emperor."
"That's the same thing."
"It's different."
Ian's eyes turned to me.
"There's a question I've always kept in my heart. And Adrian, from the moment I met you that question became a doubt, and today it finally became a certainty."
"What are you talking about?"
"Please, Adrian. Eat my heart."
The eyes looking at me were not sane.
In a war blanketed in slaughter, it seemed Ian had worn down too.
Even a Hero was a person in the end, and there's no such thing as a person who is always strong.
"I can't do that."
It was a request I couldn't grant, whatever the reason.
It was an absurd request to begin with.
The allied forces need Ian.
The only reason I'm alive right now is to throw my life away if it comes to that.
Ian and me.
If one of the two has to live, it's Ian, not me.
At that, Ian nodded as though he had expected it.
"You just promised. That you'd grant my last request."
Ian raised his one remaining right arm and brought it to his own chest.
There wasn't even time for me to do anything.
SPURT!
Red blood sprayed up, and my vision was dyed crimson.
"!!!"
My eyes flew wide.
In that wide-open field of view.
Ian was crushing his own chest open and forcing his hand inside.
"You, you, what are you...!"
The suddenness of it wouldn't even let the words come out properly.
CRUNCH! CRACK!
The sound of bone grinding and muscle tearing came through.
And then the hand Ian drew out was soaked through with blood.
On that blood-drenched hand...... was Ian's heart. Beating, still beating.
"...Please... Adri...an."
Ian held the heart in his hand out to me.
Having lost his heart, Ian's life was draining away at terrifying speed.
"The Emperor... the continent... and the people..."
Ian's body lost its strength and pitched forward.
I hurriedly caught him as he fell. Ian's face buried itself weakly against my chest.
"If you... go back..."
From Ian, buried against my chest, a small whispering voice reached me.
"Your sister... don't... hate her... too much..."
With those words, Ian's voice did not come again.
"I......an?"
There was no answer to my call.
There was only Ian, gone cold.
......Nothing comes to mind.
The situation was too unreal, the reality too much...... my mind simply went blank.
I don't know how long I stayed rooted to that spot.
—Over here!
—There are tracks here!
Far off, shouts from the Imperial Army rang out and my mind came back.
Had I lost too much time? The Imperial Army had found our trail.
I had to run, even now.
But I couldn't bring myself to move.
I slowly lowered my eyes.
Ian, held in my arms, showed not the slightest movement.
There was no warmth left in him.
Ian was............... dead.
"Found him! We've found the Hero!!"
"Don't rush in carelessly! The Predator is with him!!"
The Imperial Army, having found Ian and me at last, closed in from every direction.
I couldn't even register what I was doing.
At some point, in my hand......
Ian's heart was resting there.
Ian's heart was losing its life force fast, following after its owner.
"The Predator is trying to devour the Hero's heart!"
"Stop him! Stop him whatever it takes!!"
The Imperial Army's shouts came in a rush.
Swords poured in from all sides.
Crunch.
The tough muscle of the heart was crushed between my teeth.
The sharp smell of blood spread through my mouth, and all at once something surfaced in my vision.
◆New Player detected.
◆Error: A Unique Perk already exists in duplicate.
◆The Unique Perk is being inherited by the new Player.
◆Inheriting Perk......
Strange messages rose before my eyes.
And at the same moment, the swords of the Imperial Army pouring in from all sides pierced my heart.
CRACK!
***
I died.
The reason I'm certain I died?
Obviously.
My heart was run through by the Imperial Army's swords.
There is no such thing as a living being that survives losing its heart.
Even Ian, the Hero, died the moment he lost his.
So I died.
"Ugh—!"
And yet, what is this?