Chapter 4
Excerpt from the Sword Demon's Love Song
1
They danced in the moonlight - he grey, she red. Silver sparks floated around them. Their swords played the melody of a wondrous symphony.
Wilhelm clenched his teeth, defending himself against another attack from his opponent - his beloved wife. She looked exactly as she had in years past - beautiful and young.
How long does it take? A few seconds? Minutes? Hours?
He was so busy with Theresia that he didn't pay any attention to Garfiel at all. He had long since lost him from his Eyes.
A moment ago, out of the corner of his eye, Wilhelm had registered that the control tower - most likely the one where they were to face Capella - had fallen with a bang somewhere in the distance.
Maybe this young man managed to defeat Lust? I'm too old for that... If he succeeded, he did something wonderful. I owe him thanks. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be able to concentrate on my fight.
This fight was a denial of their former happiness together. This meeting should not have happened.
Wilhelm threw himself at Theresa with a battle cry, aware that he had to end this. She stared at him impassively with dead eyes. He remembered her as a wonderful woman who laughed a lot, was often angry, and was rarely silent. She was like the most beautiful flower under the sun. It was so sad to look at her now. He felt like his heart was breaking.
- Even if something worries you, when you take the sword in your hands, you have to let go of doubt. That's what you used to say. You were always smarter than me.
He knew he couldn't win against her unless he reached for the finest swordsmanship techniques. When they were young, he had also tried to surpass her, and so he worked on himself until he became one with the sword, pure steel. Only then did he prevail against her in a duel and could declare that he would protect her.
Many years have passed since then. Wilhelm was an outstanding swordsman, but he had made mistakes at times. He understood that now he had to take it a step further.
- Remember how we said goodbye? I didn't want you to take part in the Whale expedition, and you used trickery and hurt my arm badly. I'll never forget what you said then.
She didn't respond. Besides, he hadn't expected any response. This monologue allowed Wilhelm to return to the old days, to reckon with his mistakes. He remembered well what she had said in her farewell, setting off on an expedition from which she would not return.
"The next time we meet, I want to hear those words I've been waiting for all this time."
- The day has come to fulfill the promise!
Wilhelm's cry made no impression on her. Silent, without a shadow of emotion on her beautiful face, she cut to kill. Two swords crossed her long blade with a clang.
He still has the same habits. He uses the same tricks.
Long ago, when he swore that he would defeat her, that he would take back her sword, in order to do so, he had to become stronger than her. Therefore, he obsessively contemplated her movements, burning with the desire to reach and surpass that level until her technique became engraved in his memory.
Nothing had changed. He knew her perfectly well, so well that he could predict flawlessly what move she would make. That was the only reason he was able to avoid her cuts. He could do it even with his eyes closed. However, the heat of love made him afraid to even blink, not to lose sight of her beloved face even for a second.
Wilhelm cut from above, on a slant. She retaliated with an attack aimed at her head. Suddenly, for a brief moment, there was a glint in her eyes.
No. I thought I did. It's my imagination playing tricks on me, making me see her as she was in my memories of that day I beat her. Now we're in a very similar situation. I hope the outcome of this fight is the same...
- Theresia!
He was so close he could see his reflection in her eyes. Right now was his chance to hurt her.
He attacked with all his might.
Is it over?
He felt a tightness in his throat. In his mind's eye he saw Theresia as he knew her. He saw her face: weeping, angry, furious, smiling - his beloved. In a split second, he dismissed those memories, determined to finish the cut. He was already about to lower his swords, drive the blade of one into her neck and the other into her breast... but then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a familiar silhouette.
In a fight to the death, a warrior must be as focused as possible. He cannot afford any unnecessary thoughts, as befits a demonic swordsman.
That's how he was until he noticed the red haired man.
- Father?
He stood quite a distance away, but it seemed to William that the word was shouted in his ear.
The red-haired, blue-eyed deputy captain of the Royal Guard looked at him. The Heinkel Astrea had appeared at the exact moment his father was about to kill his mother.
When the swordsman saw his son, the killing slash turned into a clumsy blow that was easily countered.
Why did I have to notice him? No. That's not the problem. It's that I couldn't ignore him. I swore to free Theresia from the Sword God. I was going to devote my whole life to it. And what came of it?
He returned to the fight, but nothing was the same anymore. Something impure had crept into his movements. The Sword Demon and his sword were no longer one. The cold as steel Wilhelm disappeared. All that was left was a lonely old man who fought with his beloved woman in front of his son.
It couldn't have ended any other way.
He took a blow so powerful that his knees buckled under him. As he tried to push her sword away, Theresia suddenly spun around on her own axis. He shuddered. For a brief moment, he became helpless. He could only watch as the hilt of the long sword thrust into his right groin. The resurrected one precisely stabbed into his body in such a way as to render his husband unable to walk.
Wilhelm trembled, shaken. He looked at Theresia with a mixture of awe, regret, love and panic. He understood nothing of this, Nothing except one thing - he had just lost.
He groaned as she drew the blade. She drove it out of his body as perfectly as she had introduced it, noiseless and instantaneous. Only after a moment did he feel the pain and the fact that he was bleeding, then he sank to his knees. His head was splitting.
As long as the Death God's Blessing worked, the wounds he received in this battle would remain open. And the one on his stomach, and the one on his leg.
- I regret... - he let out a groan.
His whole body was on fire, but the old man knew he could ignore the pain. What he couldn't handle was the sense of failure, the despair caused by his own powerlessness and stupidity. Who can do that? We create the worst hell for ourselves, the hardest to escape from.
He dropped the sword to press his palms against the wound. Along with the blood, the life was fleeing from him.
- I can't zo... - he choked out stubbornly, reaching out for the lying sword.
I lost, tough, but I can't leave her here alone.
- Theresia, I...
The Sword Saint looked down at the old man kneeling in a pool of blood. Her eyes were empty. Not even a single thought appeared in her mind even now. The beautiful goddess of death did not realize what she was doing.
I have to stop her. Otherwise, she'll go to Subaru and Lady Crusch. People to whom I owe so much will lose their lives. I will do it, even if I have to destroy my body and lose my soul. I will stop her, even if I have to die.
A flame was lit in his heart for the last time. He raised his head.
- Theresia? - He groaned, seeing her empty eyes. Fear took him off guard.
She turned away, intending to walk away. As if there was no need to kill a mortally wounded opponent. As if she didn't see him as a proud warrior, but just another nameless victim.
- Wait, Theresia! - He shouted, even more terrified.
He tried to grab her, forgetting the pain, but she only moved away. He couldn't reach her. He watched her move away, her long hair blowing in the wind.
She was going to the Heinkel. She was looking for her next victim. She had already neutralized a man in whom she did not recognize her own husband, and now her son was to become the victim.
- Stop, Theresia! I won't let you do this! Fight me! Look at me! ME! Look at me, Theresiaaaaa! - he cried out and choked on blood. He shouted her name for the first time in anger, not With love. Desperate, he tried to get up. but the wound began to bleed harder.
Theresia did not even turn around. With a sword in her hand she walked towards the Heinkel, who with trembling hands with difficulty drew his weapon. He was shaking his head in despair, not believing what he was seeing.
- Impossible... - he choked. - Mom? Impossible... It can't be her! No! Father... Father couldn't lose... How can it be?! How can it be?! - he stuttered incoherently.
Although she looked the same, she was completely different than in his memories. He remembered her as warm and smiling, while in front of him he had a figure like from a nightmare. He could not and would not accept the fact that it was the same person. He mumbled unintelligibly, clumsily holding his sword, and out of fear he couldn't focus his eyes on his opponent. His knees began to shake.
She's gonna kill him... This can't happen!
- Theresia! Look at me! I'm alive! You must kill me first! - Wilhelm slammed his sword into the ground to rise with its0 help. He was bleeding terribly, his head was bursting with pain, but as long as he had even a drop of blood in him, he was going to go forward. - Heinkel! You can't make it! Get out of here!
Far away. Too far. Slowly... Too slow... I won't make it. Just like I didn't make it then.
- Aaaa - shouted Heinkel. It was enough for Theresia to move her sword slightly, and he already dropped his own. Astrea fell to the ground with a clang, the same weapon Heinkel received from Wilhelm. - Stop it, Mother!
His knees buckled in fear. He now crawled on the ground, desperately trying to get as far away from the nightmarish figure as possible. However, as soon as his gaze fell upon her face, he was overcome with such terror that he froze in place and the Sword Saint raised her sword high as if to impale the moon on it.
Was the last thing William was really going to see before he died was his own wife killing their son?
- Theresia! - he shouted. He felt he wouldn't make it. He stretched out his arms, though he knew he would not reach them.
The sword came down to take the life of the Heinkel...
- Enough - the scene was interrupted by a clear, dignified voice. There was not a trace of hesitation or pity in it. At the very sound of it, everyone felt that someone powerful had arrived on the scene, someone to be obeyed.
They froze - Wilhelm, Heinkel, and even Theresia.
A dignified young man with flaming red hair and eyes the color of heaven floated down from the sky. He wore a white robe that was dirty from blood. He slowly raised his lowered head and straightened up.
Sword Saint Reinhard arrived on the battlefield. In his hand shone the Dragon Sword, Reid.
The old Swordsman heard the Sword God's loud laughter.
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