“Sophie, get out of the way.”

“…I can’t do that. I’m not allowed to let you leave this isolation tower. If there’s no other choice, I’m supposed to cut off your limbs to stop you.”

“On Road’s orders?”

“Yes, from Lord Road.”

That single phrase tore into Kenya’s heart.

The fact that Road had issued an order to harm him.

Yet he hadn’t used the word “kill.” Kenya couldn’t understand why.

“I see…”

Kenya started to look down.

But he caught himself immediately. There was no time for that. He tensed his neck.

“I still haven’t talked to him. Sophie, please move aside.”

“…”

“I haven’t spoken to him yet—to Road. And if he’s really trying to destroy the world… I’ll be the one to stop him. So please, move aside, Sophie!”

“Lord Road won’t stop. Not until he changes the world.”

“I’ll stop him. I’ll stop Road. No one else can. I don’t have some grand cause like world peace.”

He lifted her downcast face straight up and looked her in the eyes.

“When he’s wrong, I can at least punch him and make him stop. Because I’m his friend!”

That powerful voice made Sophie flinch for a moment.

“…Friends. You’re saying you’ll stop Lord Road as his friend?”

“That’s right. I’m his friend.”

At those words, Sophie weakly lowered her knife.

“…You’ll stop Lord Road? Without killing him?”

“I won’t kill him. Sophie… I’ll stop Road. With these hands!”

Sophie’s eyes, so straightforward and earnest, made her suddenly drop the knife.

Tears welled up in those eyes she’d been holding back, and she covered her face as emotions exploded forth.

“…Please. Save Lord Road.”

“Huh?”

Sophie burst into tears.

The sudden change left both Kenya and Isshin shaken.

Save him? What did saving Road even mean? They couldn’t comprehend it.

“Please stop Lord Road, Sword! That man, who’s been trapped in the past all this time! The one heading toward death!”

“Sophie… What—”

Her expression was so genuine it couldn’t be acting—the face of a girl who truly cared for Road.

Kenya had heard about it: Sophie had been Road’s personal maid since long ago, tending to him.

When she spoke of Road, the expressionless maid became surprisingly talkative.

So Kenya had sensed it somehow. Sophie probably liked Road.

She’d said things that sounded like affection toward him, but he quickly realized it was just for her duty, an act.

And these tears weren’t lies.

Kenya approached the kneeling Sophie.

Isshin tried to stop him, but Kenya walked straight to the sobbing girl’s side.

“Sophie, tell me. What’s Road—”

“After Lord Road unifies the world… he plans to die. He’ll remake the world’s systems, destroy all nations, rebuild them. And in the end, he’ll bear the hatred of the entire world and atone for Earthguard’s sins with his own death.”

What Sophie revealed was part of Road’s plan.

Road, prepared to be hated by the world and fall into hell, intended to cleanse its resentment with his life.

Learning this truth, Kenya gave a small smile.

“I see. He’s still the same as ever, huh.”

“Please, I can’t stop him anymore. My voice doesn’t reach him. Only you. Only you, Sword—the one who brought back Lord Road’s smile!”

Sophie poured out her pent-up feelings like a dam bursting.

“Got it, Sophie. I’ll definitely stop him. Believe me.”

“…Sword.”

Sophie nodded slowly.

Kenya gave her a gentle smile in return and started toward the isolation tower’s exit.

Then, glancing back as he left, he told her,

“Oh, Sophie. One more thing—about my name.”

“Huh?”

“My real name is Kenya Mikazuki. Remember it. I’m Road’s friend, his sword. And…”

He flashed a grin and gave a thumbs-up.

His expression was so bright it even softened Sophie’s face involuntarily.

“The world’s strongest knight, Kenya Mikazuki!”

He left the isolation tower with a smile.

…

“Kenya!”

“Kenya!”

“You’re both safe! Thank you!”

Aphrodite and Takemikazuchi had just finished smashing KOG units guarding the isolation tower.

There were no enemies left nearby. In the distance,

“Osiris…”

Osiris Halberd stood blocking Road’s path.

The enemy hesitated to advance, sparsely challenging him only to be cut down one after another.

“Let’s go, Reina, Kaguya.”

Reina carried Kenya, Kaguya carried Isshin into the cockpit, heading to the southern district hangar where Takemikazuchi waited.

With KOG, they’d reach the hangar quickly.

But there sat a single knight who still couldn’t stand, right next to Takemikazuchi—like friends chatting by the riverside.

Jin, with his custom machine Sleipnir.

“Kenya, to Takemikazuchi. I’ll handle Jin.”

“No, Reina, wait a sec.”

Reina set Kenya down and moved toward Jin.

But Kenya stopped her.

He slowly approached Jin.

“Kenya! It’s dangerous!”

Ignoring Reina’s warning, Kenya walked right up to Jin.

The KOG’s head, which had been hanging low, lifted and looked at him.

“Sword…”

Jin’s voice came from inside.

Weak, far from his usual confident tone.

“Jin. Sorry for keeping quiet. My name is Kenya Mikazuchi, Japanese.”

“…I see. So what Reina said was true.”

“Sorry, Jin. I have to go. I’d rather not fight you. But I have to stop Road. So…”

Kenya bowed to Jin and moved to board Takemikazuchi.

“Sword… What is your justice? Tell me. Why do you fight? For what?”

“My reason for fighting…”

Kenya turned back to look at Jin.

“I can’t claim anything grand… But I want a world where Reina the Earthguardian and Kaguya the Japanese girl can smile. That’s all.”

Nothing had changed since that day.

Kenya just wanted to spend time happily with those two in this world.

That wish alone, and his reason for fighting, had never changed.

“…Earthguardians and Japanese laughing together… That’s… heh. Quite the dream.”

“I thought it was simple… but it’s not going so well.”

Kenya boarded Takemikazuchi.

No time left. He didn’t know when Osiris would be overwhelmed.

So.

“…Goodbye, Jin.”

He bid Jin farewell and took to the skies.

As he departed, Jin said just one thing, straining with all he had left.

“…Do your best, Kenya.”

“Yes!”

…

“Kenya, we’re pulling back for now. To Japan.”

“Even you can’t handle that many, Kenya.”

“Yeah… Got it. We’ll retreat.”

Kaguya and Reina suggested withdrawal.

Road’s fleet alone numbered over ten thousand, and now massive armies approached from another direction.

Units led by Org Obelisk and Lamia Silverna had arrived shortly after Road.

Kenya might handle ten thousand enemies.

But fighting on this unfavorable battlefield served no purpose.

The goal of rescuing Kenya was achieved.

Thanks to one lone ally.

“Osiris!”

Kenya hailed him.

“…It’s been since that day, Sword. Looks like you got saved.”

“Thanks. I owe you. You should escape too, Osiris—”

“I’ll die here. And I didn’t save you. If anything, you’re my lord’s enemy. I’d love to cut you down, but I doubt I could win. So I just wanted to give Road a hard time.”

“…No.”

“Sword, tell me one last thing. What did Odin say before he died?”

Kenya recalled Odin’s final words.

He told the truth, holding nothing back.

“…He said he wouldn’t lose to Road. Then he took his own life.”

“……I see. That’s just like him. Thanks.”

“…No, thank you for everything.”

Kenya, Reina, and Kaguya headed straight back to Japan.

Osiris’s final words to Kenya:

“Sword. We are swords. I swore loyalty to Odin in the throne room, and you to Road. Don’t forget those words. Even if our paths diverge, even if the world is against us, we alone are swords.”

“…Yes!”

Kenya answered Osiris clearly.

His voice firm, conveying his true intent.

Then Kenya and the others flew full speed toward Japan.

The Earthguard forces pursued, but Osiris blocked them.

“There you go… Sword. The world you want to change. I wish I could have seen it.”

Osiris remembered Kenya’s words from the Empire Sword Martial Festival, amid that deathmatch.

The desperate wish of that boy for the world he wanted to change brought a faint smile to his face.

Because it was the kind world he himself had once dreamed of.

This battle was certainly Odin’s funeral war.

But Osiris’s true goal was saving Kenya.

Because that day, he had seen it in Kenya’s sword.

The pinnacle of martial prowess, dreams, ideals embodied in human extremes.

And the distant dreams he and his lord had forgotten long ago.

Battlefield, death, time, jealousy—they had erased the world those two had sought.

“I’ll change the world into one where I can just fool around with those two!!”

That day, Osiris thought.

Cut down by that overly straightforward sword.

Receiving a blade laden with wishes and feelings.

“Lord Odin, there are still those who chase the dreams we long ago deemed impossible.”

“Someday, I want to change the world with this sword. I couldn’t protect it, but a world where everyone can happily spend time with the ones they love. An unworthy wish… but I want to change the world.”

What a foolish, straightforward, happy, naive dream.

For Osiris, who had lost his beloved wife to war, it was a world he’d never regain.

Yet swinging his sword desperately, pursuing it still, he remembered.

The world he’d given up on.

“I hope that someday, the world comes where you can laugh with the one you love, as you wish.”

So Osiris entrusted it.

The feelings he’d once wanted to change, the wish to reshape the world with a sword.

The distant utopia he’d forgotten.

To the boy whose blade had never broken, that steel-like sword.

“I’ll pass it on, Kenya.”

Osiris fought to the end against ten thousand foes and fell that day.

Osiris Halberd, battling to his last breath, died in combat at the imperial capital Valhalla.

Without taking a single Earthguard life.

Passing his wish alone to the future.