Chapter 59: Closing Stage
Joseph says softly. "Make up for it? What are you... Do you mean-"
Marie nodded with a smile as she glanced up at the sky and said. "We are going to Phanes City! We are going to find Anasha, save her, and then punch Phineas in the face for taking her!"
Reinhard blinked, caught off guard, and then laughed out loud as he shaked his head. "You... You really are amazing Marie... You’re right, she’s still alive, and that means we can get her back."
Joseph smiles as he says. "Alright, that sounds like a goal."
Marie nodded with a smile and said. "We should find the Cup Inquisitors and then leave this place."
Reinhard glanced around to see everything, and then his gaze landed on the massive orb of soul and the countless faces on it.
"Let’s absorb the Mensis Town soul..." Reinhard says.
"We should focus on devouring as much as we can, but not integrate yet." Marie says, leading Reinhard and Joseph to nod their head.
Reinhard held his hand out, black-blue aura shimmering as souls of the fallen Phantasm Beasts began flowing toward him. Marie and Joseph stretched their arms out as well, and a golden-white light surrounded Marie while grey energy enveloped Joseph.
All three trembled as the absorption began.
Images flooded Reinhard’s consciousness like a dam breaking. He saw Mr. Halloway carrying barrels to the tavern, his hunched back aching, but his face content as children waved at him. The perspective shifted to Mrs. Elira kneading dough in her kitchen, flour dusting her apron as she hummed and thought about the honey bread she’d give to little Anasha tomorrow.
Another shift.
Jonas climbed a ladder to fix a leaking roof, his calloused hands working steadily while he joked with the family below. Then Marcie sat on a porch step, her fingers weaving through Anasha’s blue hair in a careful braid, smiling at the girl’s excited chatter about her brother.
The perspectives multiplied.
Reinhard saw through ten different townspeople’s eyes as they greeted each other on morning streets. He saw them sharing meals in the cafe, helping neighbors repair damaged walls, and celebrating small victories together. Every interaction carried warmth, community, and the simple satisfaction of belonging.
But underneath it all ran currents of something else. Sorrow for a past they couldn’t quite remember, regret for lives that felt incomplete and a strange relief. As if being part of Anasha’s dream had given them a purpose they’d never possessed before.
Reinhard gritted his teeth as his head throbbed. Blood leaked from his nose as more images crashed through him. His body shook violently with ten perspectives, each one adding weight to his consciousness until he felt darkness appearing at the edge of his eyes.
Then it stopped.
Reinhard blinked and saw the massive soul still hovering before them, a dozen faces missing from its surface but new ones quickly taking their place.
Marie and Joseph sighed, but both were panting as well.
"How many souls was it for you?" Reinhard asked.
Marie laughed weakly. "Fourteen for me... I think I’m at my limit."
Joseph sighed. "Ten for me."
Reinhard furrowed his brows. "I only did up to ten."
That means Marie should be at 94 souls, and Joseph should be at 84 after that. He was at 72 as he gained six from Ven and then ten from the massive souls.
He could have pushed for more, but passing out now would be disastrous. He still recalled the last time he did that, and he almost lost himself.
Joseph frowned. "What will we do with this soul? If nothing is done, it will fade away."
Mimir spoke from Reinhard’s shoulder. "I will keep it for you all until you’re ready for the next serving."
Reinhard blinked as he saw black feathers shot from the crow’s body, swirling around the massive soul and latching onto it. The soul was covered completely in dark feathers before compressing, growing smaller until it was barely the size of an apple.
It rushed toward Mimir, who opened his beak and swallowed it whole.
Reinhard stared blankly. "You can store souls?"
Mimir bobbed his head. "Storing and spitting them out is my ability."
Marie’s eyes sparkled as she lifted Mimir from Reinhard’s shoulder. "So your ability isn’t your knowledge? Seeing through illusions? Or identifying enemy strength?"
Joseph furrowed his brows. "Now that you mention it, Mimir has a lot of abilities."
"Those are just my innate abilities, not my skill," Mimir explained. "My skill is to store things in my belly. While my innate ability to see through illusion and knowledge is my innate ability."
"Are others supporting beast sigils like this?" Reinhard asked in slight disbelief.
"Only ones that come from a high-class beast." Joseph says in surprise while staring at Mimir, and then he continues. "Well, it still only gives you one skill, although such innate skills are surprising."
"But this is also why having a support beast sigil is pretty amazing! It’s like having your own beast companion!" Marie says in glee, leading Reinhard to nod his head.
Reinhard smiled despite his exhaustion. "At least now we don’t need to rush devouring souls."
Marie and Joseph nodded in agreement.
"I’ve been wondering," Reinhard said after stretching his arms, "why does it take you longer to integrate souls, Marie? I don’t think you would be overpowered by those souls..."
Marie giggled nervously as she looked to the side while Joseph sighed. "It’s because she accepts all of them and doesn’t want to forcibly fuse people into herself, which is why she takes so long. But because the Phantasm Beasts of Mensis Town liked us, it’s easy to integrate."
"That might be why mine is so fast too." Reinhard observed. "I simply force them into my soul and assimilate them as strength, with my goal keeping me at the forefront."
Joseph nodded. "Personality is a big factor in devouring and integrating. You could say the more narcissistic the person is, the more souls they can integrate without losing themselves. There was once a legendary Inquisitor who could devour a hundred souls at once in the Third Class Beast Master stage and still was fine."
Reinhard stared in disbelief, recalling how devouring over forty souls almost destroyed him. Yet Joseph was telling him someone not only devoured hundreds of souls but was still fine!?
But then Reinhard noted something Joseph said.
Reinhard furrowed his brows as he said. "You said Third Class stage? Is devouring a hundred souls not a big deal in higher tiers?"
"For every hundred souls you accumulate, the amount you can integrate doubles," Joseph explained. "If you could integrate six at a time before reaching a hundred total, you can absorb twelve after."
Marie added with a nod. "And normally for Second Class Beast Masters, absorbing over a hundred souls is easily possible."
Before Reinhard could respond, he and the others heard footsteps approaching rapidly. The Cup Inquisitors rushed toward them with panic clear on their faces.
Marie waved cheerfully while Joseph frowned and asked. "Is there an enemy-"
The ground trembled violently and interrupted Joseph. A massive explosion erupted from a nearby building, sending a pillar of fire skyward.
"Run!" Jessie shouted. "That crazy bastard set the whole place to blow up!"
Marie, Reinhard, and Joseph’s expressions shifted instantly. The three Inquisitors turned and sprinted ahead while the other five caught up, leading all eight of them to rush toward the town’s edge as more explosions detonated in sequence behind them.
Buildings that had survived the night’s battles now erupted in flames. Fire burst from beneath the streets where Phineas had planted his traps, transforming the ruined district into an inferno.
"The other part of town has explosions right under it!" Bruno called out while running. "Keep moving forward!"
They raced through streets that had become a pillar of flame array. A pillar of fire erupted from a building to their left, and Reinhard grabbed Marie’s shoulder and yanked her aside as flames engulfed where she’d been about to step.
An explosion tore through a building ahead, sending debris raining down. Joseph used Wind Drift to deflect the largest pieces while they ran beneath the falling wreckage.
Lloyd’s bear claws extended as he grabbed Kyle and threw him over a spreading pool of fire. The rest followed with all their speed and leaped across as flames reached for their heels.
More explosions rippled through the district in carefully timed sequences, each one designed to herd them toward specific paths. Reinhard swiftly grasped that this was Phineas’s final artistic touch and an explosion on the stage.
Or maybe he wanted them to run and turn their escape into a performance.
A wall collapsed ahead and blocked their route. Suzy’s ice sword materialized and carved through the obstruction, creating an opening they poured through single-file.
Jessie’s flames provided light through the thickening smoke. They followed her blazing hands like a beacon through streets they could barely see. The clinic they’d visited earlier exploded, fire consuming the building where Ven had recovered. The cafe where Anasha’s family had worked erupted next, flames devouring memories of meals and laughter.
Every building, every street, every trace of the life Anasha had believed in was being erased by fire.
They reached the town’s edge and hurled themselves over the boundary.
Just as a massive explosion exploded behind them. The shockwave threw them forward to land hard on grass beyond Mensis’s limits.
When they looked back, the entire town was engulfed in flames. What the original fire had damaged, this new inferno consumed completely. They lay on the grass and breathed heavily, watching Mensis Town die for the second and final time.