Long ago, an evil dragon nearly destroyed the world.
People despaired. All they could do was watch him rampage.
There were those brave enough to stand against him, but faced with the Evil Dragon's overwhelming strength they could not so much as scratch him and were simply crushed.
Even the nation that had created the Evil Dragon and sought to make use of his power was no exception.
One after another, people lost those dear to them, lost their land, lost their belongings, and amid the ceaseless weeping of the grief-stricken the Evil Dragon trampled the world as though the feelings of such people had nothing to do with him at all.
There was nothing left to do but wait for the world to break.
And then, in the midst of all that resignation, a single glimmer of hope appeared.
The ones who rose up to slay the Evil Dragon who was upsetting the world's balance were the very people who had been persecuted until then: the wielders of the power called magic, those known as mages.
Leading them was a young woman.
She alone held the power to oppose the overwhelming Evil Dragon, and so the people respectfully called her the Archmage.
Yet even with the Archmage's power, the battle against the Evil Dragon was ferocious, and after a long series of back-and-forth skirmishes, they struck him down at last.
The vast body toppled to the earth with a thunderous boom, and the mages shared their joy with cheers and roars.
But the Archmage, who had fought at the very forefront, was different.
She began to walk slowly towards the Evil Dragon, who seemed on the verge of death.
Her steps were unsteady, and she was so weak that she looked as if she might collapse at any moment.
Did anyone notice her poor complexion?
While everyone was still caught up in their joy and had yet to notice, the Archmage raised a barrier to conceal both herself and the Evil Dragon.
She did not want to be disturbed in these final moments, so she hid them both from sight.
Some did notice, but they were few and far between.
The other mages were talented in their own right, but not one of them could see through the barrier the Archmage had cast.
She limped her way to the Evil Dragon's head, and the moment she arrived her knees buckled and she collapsed.
"Cough, cough... hgh!"
Her hand was stained bright red by the blood that came up with the violent coughing.
Far from being surprised by the sight, she smiled instead.
"Haha... I don't think I can hold on much longer either... But at least this way I don't have to send you off alone, so maybe that's for the best?"
Saying that, the Archmage smiled at the Evil Dragon.
Her gaze was so warm, so full of compassion, that it was hard to believe she was directing it at the being who had terrified the whole world.
She reached out slowly, touched the Evil Dragon, and stroked him softly.
"It's all right."
She whispered gently and brought her face closer.
She was brimming with compassion for the Evil Dragon.
"I put up a barrier, so nobody can hear us. Until you pass away peacefully... I'll be right here with you..."
Blood trailed from her lips as she spoke those words.
The Evil Dragon growled softly, a sound so faint it seemed it might vanish at any moment.
It was as if he were saying, "Thank you."
The Archmage shifted a little and leaned against the Evil Dragon.
She no longer had the strength left to support her own body.
In the battle, the Archmage had suffered severe injuries deep enough to amount to mutual destruction.
She understood better than anyone that she didn't have much time left.
But the Archmage had known it would come to this.
She had sensed it the moment she faced the Evil Dragon, no, long before that: that she wouldn't emerge unscathed.
She hadn't told anyone, because she knew that the other mages would never have helped if she did. She even felt relief that she had kept it to herself.
It was precisely because her comrades held her in such high regard that they would have refused to help.
She didn't think it conceited to believe the bond of trust between them was strong enough for her to be certain of that.
They would surely grieve.
Even the Archmage didn't wish for death.
Still, she couldn't just leave the Evil Dragon to rampage.
Because she knew there was no one besides herself who could stop the Evil Dragon.
It had to be her, and no one else.
And besides, she could not bring herself to treat it as someone else's problem.
"I'm sorry I couldn't save you sooner..."
She had wanted to save him sooner. She had wanted to set him free.
But the Evil Dragon's power was immense, and even for the Archmage it hadn't been an easy task to take him down.
She would never learn the true name of this dragon whom everyone called nothing but 'the Evil Dragon', and that made her feel unbearably sad.
"You never wanted any of this, did you? You were only used..."
The Archmage smiled at him sadly.
The Evil Dragon is just like me.
The Archmage existed today only because kind-hearted mages had reached out to a small child who had already been alone for as long as she could remember.
They were kindred souls at the beginning of their lives.
Had she been the one those people caught, perhaps she would have been the one slain.
Because she understood that, she could not rejoice from the heart the way the others did, even having slain the Evil Dragon.
"Listen? When you're born again... come to me before anyone catches you..."
The Evil Dragon looked straight into the eyes of the Archmage, who was speaking with her last breath.
"Because I'll protect you."
"Gruuh..."
With one last small cry, the Evil Dragon quietly closed his eyes.
And at that very moment, his heart stopped beating.
Once she had confirmed this, the Archmage stroked him tenderly and then turned her eyes towards her comrades.
One of the more capable among the mages had begun raising a fuss, and it seemed the rest had finally realised the Archmage was missing.
Even as she hovered on the brink of death, she watched them searching desperately for her with a serene smile.
Some had been with her since before she was called the Archmage. Others she had met in the course of the fight against the Evil Dragon.
Either way, to the Archmage they were irreplaceable comrades-in-arms.
Watching them make their racket, she saw that they were all safe and felt relieved.
With that much energy in them, there could not be anything seriously wrong.
Learning that she was apparently the only one whose life was in danger left her glad and sad at the same time.
"I'm glad I managed to protect them properly..."
The world itself did not matter.
What the Archmage had wanted to protect was something narrower, and at the same time far greater.
It was something everyone has: those who are precious to them alone.
For that, a great many people had fought the Evil Dragon and lost their lives.
And now the Archmage too, like so many brave souls before her, was about to see the flame of her life go out.
But it couldn't end just yet...
The Evil Dragon was dead.
Yet what the Evil Dragon had left behind would not disappear so easily.
The power those people had twisted was gnawing at the land still.
"Well then... shall I use my final spell?"
A thick grimoire appeared in the Archmage's hand, even though she no longer had any strength to lift it.
A divine artefact bestowed by the Supreme God, one that only the Archmage could use.
Even if every mage in the world gathered together, they could not contain the Evil Dragon's power, which could destroy the world even in death.
Not unless this grimoire, bestowed by the gods, was combined with the Archmage's own strength...
As the grimoire appeared, the sacred beast Aerith stood near the Archmage.
She would have liked to stroke Aerith's head one last time, but she no longer had the strength.
Instead, she smiled, putting all her gratitude for everything into it.
Meanwhile the grimoire's pages fluttered and turned as though blown by the wind, and then stopped.
She managed to place a hand on the blank, white page and channelled her remaining mana into it.
It was all the power she had, drawn even at the cost of her own life force.
A pillar of light so dazzling it seemed to pierce the heavens rose up with the Archmage and the Evil Dragon at its centre.
In that instant Aerith took flight into the beautifully clear blue sky, her tail feathers fluttering gracefully as she circled the area around the pillar of light, as though purifying the place of all its impurities.
The sacred beast's cry, a clear, bell-like sound, echoed all around.
Only then did the rest of her comrades notice where the Archmage was and come running, but they were a step too late.
Instead of saying goodbye, the Archmage summoned the very best smile she could.
This was magic only the Archmage could cast.
If the twisted dark power the Evil Dragon held, tampered with by a third party, were left unchecked, the land would lose its balance and become defiled, uninhabitable for every living thing.
Left alone, that impurity would spread further and further.
The only power capable of stopping it was the power of Light possessed solely by the Archmage.
To purify the land the Evil Dragon had defiled, and to seal the power streaming from his corpse in that very spot.
And to protect the Evil Dragon and this land from those who coveted his power.
Staking the last of her life, the Archmage raised a powerful barrier that would hold for a thousand years.
This was the final mission the gods had granted her when they asked her to slay the Evil Dragon, one she had never revealed to her comrades.
The light burst and rained down, and as the barrier was completed, the Archmage collapsed, drained of all her strength.
Her comrades were clamouring around her, but the Archmage, barely breathing now, could not hear them clearly.
The voices steadily grew more distant, and another voice took their place.
This one was not hazy at all. It was perfectly clear.
The infuriating individual who had given the Archmage her duty... no, a god.
The Supreme God of this world, the being who had granted her his blessing and the grimoire along with her mission.
『You did well.』
"I'm not doing that again."
Her mouth should not have been moving, but she had no time to wonder how she was able to speak clearly or why the agony she had felt moments ago had vanished.
All she felt was exhaustion.
『On behalf of all the gods, I offer you our thanks for staking your life to protect the world.』
"It wasn't for the world. I did it because I wanted to protect the people who matter to me."
『I thought you would say that. But the fact remains that you protected the world, and we wish to reward you for that. If you have a wish, tell me.』
She was going to die, so what wish could she have?
Even as she thought that, a sudden wish popped into her head.
"In that case... I'd like to live an ordinary life next time. Wouldn't it be wonderful? To be born ordinary, and just live, laughing with my family over trivial little things."
『How selfless. And yet greedy at the same time. You of all people must know how difficult it is to be 'ordinary'.』
It was a heartfelt wish born precisely from knowing just how miraculous an ordinary life was.
"That's exactly what makes it a reward, isn't it? I did enough to earn that much, didn't I?"
She was not about to let him say otherwise.
"After how hard I worked, I think you could do that much for me."
This life of hers was anything but ordinary.
So all she could do was bet on the next life.
"Oh... And if you can, let the Evil Dragon live an ordinary life too. I promised I'd protect him. If those people hadn't used him, he might have lived a happy life..."
The Archmage knew.
That the Evil Dragon had originally been nothing more than a person.
No, that was not quite right.
Just as the Archmage had been given the Supreme God's protection, he had been given the protection of the Goddess of Darkness. He was the one and only person in this world who held the power of darkness.
He had simply been exploited for that power and forcibly transformed into the Evil Dragon.
Blinded by the Evil Dragon's immense power, they went ahead and transformed him, and then, exactly as anyone might have expected, failed to control that power and destroyed themselves.
It was never anything the Evil Dragon himself had wanted.
That was precisely why the power of the Archmage, who possessed the Supreme God's protection, had been needed. But for it all to end there, with the Evil Dragon simply slain, was far too pitiful.
That nation should be made to pay a fitting price too, though she wondered whether it even still existed...
She wanted to find out, but she no longer had that kind of time.
Besides, the people who would go on living in this world could figure out what to do next.
Would she be blamed for being irresponsible?
But she had achieved the greatest feat of all, so for now she wanted to be allowed to rest in peace.
If it could be granted, the Archmage wished for the ordinary life she never had in this lifetime.
『Very well. It is accepted.』
The one who answered was not the Supreme God.
It was a woman's voice, gentle in tone.
『In the name of the Goddess of Fate, I shall weave your destiny so that you may meet the soul of the Evil Dragon.』
"...Thank you. If it's you... I'm sure... you'll make it happen. I believe that..."
A goddess had sworn upon her name.
Barring something extraordinary, such an oath would not be broken.
Perhaps because of that relief, the Archmage's words gradually lost their strength.
An overpowering wave of drowsiness washed over her, and her consciousness faded away.
And so the Evil Dragon was defeated, and the world was saved.
Leaving behind the barrier the Archmage had traded her life for, the one that would hold for a thousand years.