Chapter 6: Beast of the Land
It happened just as Rio flew out of Ericaburg with Aria in his arms. He had spotted Aishia and Liselotte hiding behind a boulder in the wasteland south of the capital, when—
“What?!” Rio felt a bizarre rise in magic essence from behind him. He turned back to face the capital in a panic.
“What...is that...?”
“Wha...”
Rio and Aria were both rendered speechless.
“...”
The two on the ground could see it as well; Liselotte was cowering with bated breath, and Aishia was glaring at it with a grim expression.
They were all staring at a four-legged beast that stood so tall it made the enormous black wyvern Rio had once fought seem small in comparison.
In a space of a hundred meters in diameter, particles of light were gathering to form a shape like a materializing spirit.
It wasn’t exactly the same, but its form resembled a rugged, ferocious fighting bull. Most of its exterior was covered in a rocklike surface, and three twisting, snake-headed tails extended from its rear. It was a creature beyond this world—a mythical beast.
Once the four-legged beast materialized in the air, it remained floating and stared down Rio and Aria from a kilometer away. Its eyes were filled with a hatred that couldn’t be described as mere rage.
“ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!” An intense roar of fury shook the air across the nation.
Haruto...!
Aishia’s voice was in a rare fluster.
Yeah, that thing is bad! Rio replied as he quickly descended to her.
“You need to evacuate immediately!” He drew his sword, giving the three of them an order with a look of undisguised panic.
◇ ◇ ◇
Meanwhile, in the skies above Ericaburg, high enough for the four-legged beast to look minuscule in size...
Now that’s a roar that hasn’t been heard in a thousand years...
Reiss watched the four-legged beast materialize.
The saint has awakened after all. That means she’s obtained the right to step into the domain of transcendence, just once.
His gaze was quite serious.
I didn’t expect her to do so in this fight, but... Now that things have come to this, it’s time to see how much of a fight the Black Knight can put up against a divine beast.
The fierce battle would commence immediately after.
◇ ◇ ◇
“The three of you need to evacuate immediately!”
Just as Rio gave his order, the four-legged beast—no, the “beast of the land,” as Erica called it, glared at Rio and the others on the ground, before a powerful shell of magic essence appeared in its mouth. The condensed essence was about thirty meters in diameter.
This is bad! Rio immediately sent his essence into his sword.
“Hah!” The beast released its essence shell.
“Oh...” Before Liselotte knew it, the shell was closing in right before her eyes, and she could do nothing but tremble. She couldn’t even react. Meanwhile, Aria yanked Liselotte towards her in order to cover her.
“It’s okay,” Aishia said at the same time Rio swung his sword. The blade was coiled in a fierce, storm-like wind.
“Oh!”
The wind that was released with a diagonal slash from bottom left to top right cut down the essence shell. It wasn’t enough to reflect the shot, but it was enough to send it off course. The redirected shot landed several hundred meters behind them in the wasteland, exploding with a tremendous shock wave. There was enough momentum for a typhoon to reach the position where Rio and the others stood.
“Gah...” Liselotte staggered in place, but Aria supported her body. Fragments of broken earth from the center of the explosion flew their way too. Rio realized that, but before he could move, Aria created a wall of wind to steer the boulders away from them.
“I’ll block them.”
Suddenly, the beast began flying at a speed unthinkable for its huge size. It made a beeline for Rio and the others outside of the city. Or so it seemed, when it turned to the right and put a kilometer of distance between them—but only for a few seconds. The movement speed of the huge beast had caused the atmosphere to shake, creating a violent wind. A cloud of dust was kicked up from the earth, but that was blocked by Aishia’s wall as well.
It changed locations? But why?
Rio was unsure of the reason why the beast had moved. However, he had no information to go off, so he was unable to make a guess.
“Vrah!” The beast of the land opened its mouth once more, and a tremendous amount of magic essence gathered again. This time, it was clearly more powerful than the first shot.
With that much magic essence, the attack will be beyond imagination...
If he moved rashly, he might not be able to protect everyone. With that judgment, Rio instantly yelled in a louder voice than ever before. “Once I block the second shot, Aishia will take you two and flee south! Run until you feel it’s safe!”
At the same time, he refined his own essence in order to confront the beast’s attack.
He drew out more of his power than he ever had before. The essence, which normally couldn’t be seen by normal humans, had become visible, but he didn’t have high hopes.
Can I really block this...?!
That was how great the essence the beast was condensing was. Rio didn’t have the confidence in himself to match that.
“That’s...” Seeing the pure light of magic essence flowing from Rio’s body, Liselotte and Aria’s eyes widened.
“Haruto, I’ll block the first shot with you,” Aishia said from behind Rio.
“All right... Please use all the magic essence you’ve got. I’ll go first, you join in once you’ve built up enough essence,” Rio replied without looking back.
“Okay.” Aishia nodded and hugged Rio gently from behind.
“...” Liselotte and Aria watched on in a daze.
The path between them allowed the essence sleeping within Rio to transfer to Aishia. Soon enough, Aishia’s body was also overflowing with essence that was visible to the human eye.
Just as the two enhanced their essence to the max, the beast of the land finished readying its attack.
“It’s okay. You can protect them, Haruto,” Aishia said softly, whispering into Rio’s ear.
“Thank you...”
That allowed Rio to snap to his senses, regaining some of his confidence. In order not to hinder Rio’s movements, Aishia took one step back and released him. Immediately after...
“RAAAAAAAAAAAH!” A piercing scream shook the air. Pure destructive energy was released from the beast of the land’s mouth. Energy that could disintegrate every material it touched, leaving not even dust behind.
“Haaah!” Against such an opponent, Rio tried to neutralize the attack with his own destructive energy. Two beams of destructive light collided with each other by the outskirts of the city.
“Wh-What...?” With Liselotte in her arms, Aria stood her ground using her physically enhanced body.
“They’re...evenly matched?” Liselotte squinted her eyes to see what was happening. However, she couldn’t process the situation at all; her vision was blinded white by the collision of light and light. Considering how the attack hadn’t reached them, they must have been able to compete with each other...
“I don’t know. It’s too hard to tell, but...!”
Aria couldn’t tell what was happening either. It took everything she had just to keep them from being blown away.
“R-Right! We can only believe in them!” Liselotte squeezed her eyes shut in prayer, clinging to Aria.
The current situation was like a back-and-forth pushing game. In other words, whoever wasn’t able to maintain their attack first would lose the push.
No matter how much magic essence slept within Rio’s body, activating arts and maintaining their activation required the action of refining essence and releasing it from the body.
It was impossible for even Rio to keep up an art of this scale for an extended period of time. His limit was approaching by the moment, but Rio wasn’t alone right now.
“I’ve got enough essence now. Let’s push it back, Haruto,” Aishia’s voice echoed. She stood beside Rio and released her accumulated energy. To an onlooker, it would’ve seemed like the beast of the land’s beam was winning against Rio’s, but by combining their energies, Rio and Aishia tilted the balance of fate in their favor in a single moment. The beam from the beast of the land was repelled in an instant.
“AAAAAAH?!” The spirit art from the two of them enveloped the beast of the land.
“Now!” Rio yelled.
“Right!”
Aishia whipped around, grabbing Liselotte and Aria together. She then accelerated in a single burst of wind spirit arts.
“Oh!”
“Ugh...”
Aria’s body was strengthened through her enchanted sword, but the gravitational forces were rather painful for Liselotte’s unprotected body.
However, such speed was necessary to escape. While Rio was still maintaining the attack, Aishia took Liselotte and Aria away from the scene as fast as she could.
◇ ◇ ◇
Meanwhile, those in the center of the city were able to observe the collision of magic essence between Rio and the beast of the land. Though they were a fair distance from the outer wall, the shells of light that were several tens of meters in diameter were hot enough to bathe the city in a heated wind.
“Wh-Whoa...”
Those gathered in the garden of the government building were continuously rendered speechless by the unbelievable sight.
What... What is the meaning of this? How could the divine beast lose in power? There shouldn’t be any human strong enough to stop the divine beast. This isn’t right!
The situation was unexpected for Erica as well, whose eyes were wide. For the record, “divine beast” was the other name by which Erica referred to the beast of the land.
She had honestly thought things would be over with the first attack. That was her intention when she summoned it. Yet it had required an even stronger second attack. And just when she believed it was over this time, for some reason a stronger attack came firing back.
According to her expectations, Erica was meant to be rejoicing over the defeat of the formidable enemy outside the city right now.
Are you saying this boy’s strength is equal to the power of a major nation? There was no way I could have expected this. How many people in a major nation have this level of strength?
What if there were multiple people like this?
There may be difficult situations for me to win one-sidedly in the future. Is he a hero as well? Is that how he obtained power equal to mine? If so, my plan may be forced to deviate.
Many questions flashed through Erica’s mind.
“I must confirm for myself,” she muttered, and began walking towards the estate gate.
“P-Please wait, Saint Erica.” Andrei snapped back to his senses and called out to her.
“What is it, Andrei?”
“Where are you going?”
“To oversee the fight with my own eyes.”
The moment Erica uttered that, sounds of despair came from those standing around the garden.
“Ah! Aaah!”
The light beam from Rio and Aishia had enveloped the beast of the land.
“Agh!”
“Eek!”
“O-Our guardian beast!”
“It’s over!”
Everyone stooped over in fear, screaming in shock. They were completely convinced that the guardian beast had been defeated.
“Calm down, everyone! Do you not believe in me, in the miracle I have created?!”
Erica slammed the end of her bishop staff into the ground, calling out to everyone. The commotion immediately quieted as their gazes focused on her.
“B-But the guardian beast, the beast of the land has...” Andrei said on behalf of the others. His face was pale as a sheet as he glanced over at where the divine beast stood. The beam Rio had released had already faded, but a tremendous cloud of dust blocked their view in its place.
“It’s okay, the guardian beast won’t be defeated just like that,” Erica stated resolutely. “However, I may have misjudged the power of a major nation. That’s why I want to see it with my own eyes. If necessary, I will finish things with my own hands. Do not stop me.”
“I-In that case, I shall go too!”
Andrei immediately tried to follow Erica as she left, but—
“Andrei, you are the prime minister. Take control of the city in my place. You can help more by doing that than by following me.”
“I... I understand.”
Andrei was admonished by Erica. He bit down on his lip and nodded in frustration.
“Then please allow me to accompany you in Mister Andrei’s place!” Natalia offered firmly.
Erica sighed heavily. “Your life may be placed in danger... Are you prepared for that?” she asked.
“I am prepared! I am willing to sacrifice my life for you, Saint Erica. When will I fight if not now?”
Natalia expressed her desire to fight without fear. Then...
“Th-That’s right!”
“I’ll go too!”
“Me too!”
“And I!”
“Please allow us to go!”
The soldiers piped up in agreement.
“Fine... However, we must move as quickly as possible. Only those who can enchant their physical abilities and keep up like Natalia may come along. I’ll allow ten of you at most—you’ll be fighting if the need arises. I will go first.” Erica seemed to be in a hurry, as she started running without adding anything further.
“Augendae Corporis!”
Natalia used the magic artifact around her arm to increase her physical abilities and started after Erica. Others chanted the spell after her and chased behind them in scattered groups.
◇ ◇ ◇
After confirming that Aishia had taken Liselotte and Aria as far away from him as possible, Rio glared at the beast of the land instead of fleeing after them.
This guy’s magic essence hasn’t weakened at all.
As the rearguard, Rio began refining his own essence once again in preparation for a follow-up attack from the beast, concealed as it was by the huge dust cloud of destruction.
I have to defeat this thing here. I cannot allow it to go near the Galarc Kingdom.
He may have been able to flee with Aishia, but Rio had a reason to stay here and fight.
“Rah!”
Suddenly, three beams of light fired out of the dust cloud. Each beam was far weaker than the shells they’d fired at each other just now, but even then they were enough to burn the ground they touched. Each beam of light closed in on the point where Rio stood.
“Ah!” Rio broke into a run, using wind spirit arts to accelerate in a single burst. He slipped under the beams of light and closed in on the beast. The dust cloud covering the beast cleared with the wind.
Unharmed, huh...
Rio frowned grimly. The beast’s form was exactly the same as when Rio first saw it. The three tails that had snakelike heads were what had fired the three beams of light. Each tail swayed as though it had a mind of its own as they aimed for Rio.
It was quite a blow to know that the earlier attack hadn’t left a scratch, but Rio proceeded forward without hesitation. Just because he was scared didn’t mean he could run away.
He slipped past the rain of light beams and closed the distance to the beast, setting up several orbs of light around him, each measuring ten-odd meters in diameter. He then sent them flying towards the beast.
Each had enough power to demolish a castle wall with a direct hit, but seeing how it was unharmed after the earlier light battle, he didn’t have high hopes.
I doubt an attack of this level will have any effect, but...
When the snake tails saw Rio’s light orbs approaching, they changed the trajectories of their breaths to cut down the orbs.
It blocked the light orbs? Did that mean a direct hit would’ve caused damage? That was the thought that instantly passed through Rio’s mind.
...I want to see what happens when an attack hits.
The scale of their first attacks had been so huge he hadn’t been able to visually confirm the direct hit. The dust cloud had cleared to what seemed like an unharmed beast, so he thought he had failed to damage it. But why would it need to defend itself if so?
At this point, the distance between the two sides was less than a hundred meters. The size difference between them was like a human looking up at a castle.
“Rah!” The beast lifted a front leg and slammed it down in an attempt to crush Rio, and it immediately sounded as though a huge explosion had gone off. The area around the point of contact was folded upwards by the shock wave, shaking the entire surroundings.
If it had made a direct hit, even a human with a physically enhanced body would have died instantly, but...
“...”
With his sword held aloft, Rio had moved above the beast’s head. While floating with his spirit arts, he landed a direct hit against the back of its head with a wind-clad blade—
“URRAH?!” The beast stumbled, dropping towards the ground.
So it can be damaged after all...?
Rio clearly witnessed the attack make a direct hit, confirming that the back of its head was gouged open. However, he could see the wound heal itself cleanly right before his eyes. This left him unsure if it counted as true damage or not.
“Guh.”
In place of the head that was thrown off-balance, the three heads at the end of its tails snapped at Rio instead. Rio waited until the last moment to see through the abnormal movements of the tails, then twisted himself midair to avoid the attack.
“Vrah?!”
He landed on one of the tails and ran the tip of his sword from top to bottom, running along the tail. It split open like a neat scalpel cut.
Perhaps it could feel pain. A screeching roar filled Rio’s ears, but the wound was already stitching itself back together.
The other two tails snapped, trying to swallow Rio and the tail he was standing on whole.
“Gwah?!” The tail that was bitten squirmed in pain. The other two tails seemed to think they had bitten down on Rio, as they were chewing furiously.
However, Rio had already jumped onto the beast’s back. He watched the tails and launched two huge orbs of fire at them, directly hitting the heads of the tails.
“GWAAAH!” The two tails stopped chewing when they were shrouded in fire and started shaking themselves to extinguish the flames. At the same time, Rio put more magic essence into his sword.
“Haaah!”
He accelerated along the beast’s back with wind spirit arts, running towards its rear. As he approached the tails, he released a slash of light that was more than ten meters wide, slicing off the three tails at the base. He then leaped off the beast’s rear and immediately turned back to check the state of the wound.
How about that...?!
The three tails were all decapitated. However, all three were still moving, and began flying like long-bodied wyverns. On top of that, all three were automatically healing the damage Rio had dealt to them.
“Ngh...” The tails fired laser beams from their mouths at Rio. The beast’s main body also looked up at Rio and released five beams of light from its mouth. Each one had just as much power as the beams coming from the tails.
A total of eight beams of light tried to pierce through the air and cut Rio down. Rio changed his course of movement and jumped, evading the attacks.
It was difficult to evade eight beams while at close range, so he distanced himself for now. He stopped at around one kilometer from the beast, but at this size scale it still felt close.
Separating it from the body and allowing it to move freely is basically increasing the number of enemies. There’d be no end to things like this...
He was definitely doing damage with attacks of a certain scale. But the instant self-recovery was nullifying that damage. Up until this point, Rio had been one-sidedly dealing damage, but it was hard to say the battle was in his favor. It could hardly be called an even match.
If I get hit just once, I’ll be in trouble.
Eight beams of light fired at Rio incessantly, and evading them all was mentally wearing. What could he do? How could he prevail?
What is this thing, anyway? It suddenly appeared in the sky above the city. A spirit? But can spirits have this much power when they’re not in humanoid form? The saint is controlling it...right? If her secret power is to control earth, how can she create creatures like this? What is the ability hidden in her Divine Arms?
He considered possibilities of the beast’s identity in order to find its weaknesses, but he couldn’t settle on a conclusion. Rio desperately racked his brain as he dodged the beams.
I can’t see an end to that regenerative ability, but... Should I try to make another attack on the body? If I can behead the beast itself...
One idea filled his head—that there was no creature that could live with its head cut off. The heart was another weakness of a living creature, but it was hard to tell where the heart was located in a body this huge. That’s why he would aim for the neck—perhaps he could defeat it that way.
He sure hoped so.
However, in order to do that, he’d have to dodge the eight beams of light and approach the body again. It took all he had to evade them at this distance already, so it would be even more taxing to get closer.
On top of that, from the regeneration he’d observed until now, there was no guarantee that beheading it would be enough to defeat it. Just then—
Is that...the saint?
He spotted Saint Erica bursting out of the gate to the city. She had come running from the official estate with her body enhanced by her Divine Arms. Natalia and the others, who could only use the weaker physical ability enchantment, were still yet to arrive.
Is this beast being controlled by her after all?
The beast was so big, it wouldn’t be strange for the city to be affected by its attacks—yet it had been completely unharmed until now.
If she’s the one controlling it...
One possibility came to Rio’s mind. Perhaps if the saint died, the beast would disappear too. If the saint was in control, then that was a possibility. In fact, based on the situation, he was almost certain of this.
The battle would only get worse for him at this rate. And if the saint could control this beast, she could make it attack the Galarc Kingdom.
No choice but to try.
Rio readied himself. He rapidly altered his course to descend upon the saint by the city gate, and he didn’t neglect to keep refining magic essence in his body in order to deal with the beast’s attacks either. He was sending essence to his sword even as he evaded the attacks.
Just then, the beam of light aimed at Rio’s descent veered off to the sky. All eight beams started avoiding Rio. It was as though it was actively avoiding dealing any damage to the city.
The beast’s attack missed! I knew it! The hypothesis in Rio’s head changed to a certainty.
“...” Erica watched Rio descend with an eerie smile on her face. There was over a kilometer of distance between them, but right now Rio was moving at a speed that was pushing the limits of his body. At his speed, he could close that gap in less than ten seconds even while moving erratically to dodge the eight beams of light.
However, the divine beast wasn’t about to let Rio approach Erica without a fight. The main body and three tails moved with light steps unbefitting of its huge size, standing in the way of Rio to protect Erica and the city.
So fast...!
The divine beast’s speed was on par with Rio’s. Its enormous body that easily measured over a hundred meters could move around rapidly. The wind that blew around them was like a storm. But its directivity seemed to be controlled, as it sent a strong countercurrent in Rio’s direction.
It was the moment of truth. If he backed down here, the divine beast would interfere to protect Erica, leaving no hope of improving the situation. Letting it take position before the city meant the saint and her beast’s movements would be restricted. They would use fiercer attacks to draw Rio away from the city, making it even harder to approach.
Thus, this moment where his opponent had just gone on the defensive was his best chance. Rio activated his spirit arts to interfere with the stormy winds blowing against him. Repelling it would require a tremendous amount of magic essence, but he couldn’t use his essence excessively if he wanted to finish off the beast’s main body.
In other words, he had to secure a flight route and push his way through. Rio enhanced the wind barrier around him with that image in mind.
His speed towards the divine beast increased even further. The faster he went, the more his trajectory straightened out, but he wanted to close the distance before his opponent could ready itself as much as possible.
“Grah!” The divine beast’s main body suddenly resumed firing its light beam. The three tails also moved nearby, spitting their lasers out to block Rio’s descending approach.
“Ugh...”
In order to evade the eight thick beams of light, Rio started moving in a zigzag line. But the erratic movements on top of his maximum speed were quite a burden on his body, and his face twisted in pain.
The g-forces from his acceleration alone were strong enough—it was self-explanatory that additional acrobatic movements would make that burden heavier. However, failing to evade an attack would mean instant death. Rio maintained his speed while weaving between the beams, approaching the main body of the beast.
The distance to the divine beast was under a hundred meters. Only three or four seconds had passed since Rio began his approach. The closer he got to the beast’s mouth, the closer the beams of light merged together to form one thick laser.
It swallowed Rio up...or so it seemed. In the next instant, he used a wind spirit art to force his trajectory off by a 90-degree angle.
“Ngh...” The greatest forces of the battle yet were put on Rio’s body. But thanks to that, he was able to evade the attack.
He had moved to a position suited for cutting off the beast’s head. All that was left was to close in faster than the beast could react.
“Haaah!”
A glowing slash that was several tens of meters long fired towards the beast’s neck. A considerable amount of magic essence was required to chop off the neck of such a large enemy. Thus, the attack contained all the essence he had built up until now in a single burst.
How about that?!
He turned his attention to the divine beast to watch the result, landing on the ground nearby. At the same time, he kept his guard up against Saint Erica behind the beast.
Immediately after, the beast lost strength in all of its legs and collapsed. One beat later, the three tails floating in the air dropped to the ground. They landed with a tremendously heavy impact.
Did I defeat it...?
Rio verified that the magic essence the divine beast spread around the surroundings had vanished all at once.
“...”
The recoil from pushing himself to fly around everywhere threw Rio off-balance, messing up his attempt to attack the saint while landing.
However, he soon felt a presence closing in from his side and readjusted his sword. The one approaching him was Erica, the saint.
“Guh...” Rio grimaced faintly as he caught Erica’s staff with his sword.
“Bravo... You’ve caught my interest. I came over because I wanted to talk,” Erica said, watching Rio with an evaluating look. Her expression was dead serious.
“These weren’t the actions of someone who wants to talk...” Rio muttered bitterly.
“No, I truly do wish to talk. Honestly speaking, that beast was very special to me.”
“I’d sure hope so. There better not be any more of those things.”
“I could return those words right back at you. If there are more monsters like you out there, my plans will be ruined. That’s what I wanted to check.”
“Your plans...?”
“Would you like to know? If so, how about an exchange of information?”
“What are you asking for in exchange?”
“There’s only one thing I wish to know. I wondered if you were a hero, but—well, that doesn’t matter anymore. Are there more people like you in the major nations? People who can fight with that beast by themselves.”
“...I have no intention of answering you without hearing what you have to offer in exchange.”
“You can ask anything you want, be it about my plans, or that beast. But I’ll only exchange one piece of information. I’ll answer concrete questions with concrete answers, but an abstract question may get an abstract answer. So please watch how you word your question.”
“How can I be sure you’re telling the truth?”
“You can’t. But I can promise I will not lie. And I’d like you to make the same promise. I need to know the truth, after all.” Erica had a very serious expression.
“...Fine. I’ll do it.” Rio had many things he wanted to ask as well. Narrowing them down to one question was rather difficult, but if he had to choose...
“Since I was the one who proposed the exchange, I’ll allow you to ask first as a show of goodwill. Please, go ahead.”
“Then... Who is it that you want revenge on?”
“Heh... Hehe. Hehehe. What a wonderful question. Fine, I shall tell you the answer just this once,” Erica said as preface. “I don’t have a specific target. It’s the entire world. This world was created by foolish humans. If it weren’t for this world, he wouldn’t have died. That’s why I will have revenge on the whole thing. I wish to see this world destroyed—that is my goal.” She’d begun her speech expressionless, but her face gradually filled with hatred as she spoke.
“Revenge on the world?”
“I won’t answer anything else. Please answer my question next. Are there more people like you with the strength to fight that beast lying there solo?” Erica asked, staring at Rio.
“Saint Erica!”
Just then, the ten soldiers following Erica appeared from within the city. Natalia, who was running in the lead, spotted Rio and Erica pointing their weapons at each other. They immediately moved to provide backup by surrounding Rio.
“Oh my, everyone’s finally caught up. Well done. Good timing.” Erica spoke happily, praising them for their reliability.
“The situation has changed. I assume the information exchange ends here?”
“Of course not. You still haven’t answered my question. I’ll lose my trust in human nature if you don’t hold up your half of the deal.”
In other words, the answer to how many people there were like Rio in the bigger nations, that could fight a divine beast alone. Erica stared at him for a reply.
“I don’t know everything about every kingdom out there, but I’ve fought with the ‘strongest swordsman’ of a neighboring kingdom before. I believe he would have struggled against the beast.” Without dropping his guard against the soldiers surrounding him, Rio faced Erica with his greatest caution. He gave an answer of similar depth to hers.
“I see. That’s a relief to hear. We can end the information exchange here, then. It seems like you’re the only one left behind—I’m sure your friends have taken Liselotte away by now. That’s a bit of a problem...” Erica let out a troubled sigh.
“I could say the same. You’ve declared war on Galarc while possessing such a power. I can’t let you walk free.”
“So you’re saying you want to kill me.”
“I’d prefer not to, but if you leave me with no other choice...”
It’d be his last resort. If not, Rio and those important to him would be killed instead.
He knew nothing about the beast, so he couldn’t write off the possibility of the saint creating another one. He absolutely had to prevent the saint from invading Galarc with that beast in tow.
“Hehehe. It seems you think rather highly of me. However, I think the same of you. Now that you’ve learned of my secret, I can’t allow you to return with that information. It’d be troublesome if it caused those major nations to have a sense of wariness. But I support there’s no stopping the leak of information with Liselotte gone. I would have liked to kill you at the very least, but that won’t be an easy task without the divine beast...”
Erica sighed as though she was truly troubled, then looked around at the soldiers surrounding Rio.
“Well, I’m sure it’ll work out,” she said, beaming brightly.
“What...?” Rio looked at her in suspicion.
“Rah!” One of the tails of the divine beast that was still within his field of view suddenly gained a glint in its eye. It then spewed a beam of pure destructive energy at Rio, the saint, and the soldiers.
“Huh?!”
In order to prioritize activation speed, the beam was both weaker and more limited in attack range—and that was why it was able to hit everyone present.
“Grah...!”
Rio had put up a wall of wind the moment he detected the rise in magic essence, but he still took the destructive energy bodily. He was unable to block all the damage.
On top of that, his body was blown through the air, making him fall several meters away and roll across the ground.
It wasn’t dead...? No—more importantly, did the saint attack herself with her allies around? That couldn’t be... Is she not in control of that beast?
Questions raced through his head as he struggled to maintain his consciousness. But there was no time to think things through leisurely.
“G-Guh...” Rio got to his feet in pain, looking over at where he was just standing to see what had happened. The ground was gouged open and dirt had blown everywhere. Rio had been injured with his physically enhanced body behind a barrier of wind. He couldn’t imagine the soldiers there being unharmed.
“Hehehe.”
Just then, with her bishop’s staff in hand, Erica charged at Rio. He used the sword in his right hand to block it by reflex, but—
“Ngh...”
The blow contained tremendous power. Under normal circumstances he could have handled it, but the damage he had received weakened his essence control, making him lose the push.
She should have been hurt too... How can she move this well?!
Erica had been hit by the earlier attack as well, and her appearance was rather ragged. However, she put enough strength into her staff to send Rio flying back. Rio barely managed to leap in the opposite direction and stifle the momentum of his landing, but—
Shit... My internal organs were hit...
With a cough, blood spilled out of Rio’s mouth. He leaped back as he placed his left hand over where it hurt the most.
“Tch...”
Pain laced through him as he landed, making him pale further.
“I thought I could defeat you with that, but you survived. What a terrifying person.”
Erica closed the distance to where Rio flew. She evidently intended to finish him off while he was weakened.
“You’re the terrifying one... Ngh. Why would you...do that to your allies...” Rio coughed, questioning her in a haggard voice. The pain running throughout his body made it difficult to refine any magic essence. The moment he let his mind slip, he would collapse. His vision was a blur—whether it was because of his fading consciousness or the blood in his eyes, he wasn’t sure. He had no magic essence to spare on healing. All he could do was maintain his physical body enhancement in order to ignore his body’s screams.
“You’re the one who killed them.”
“What...”
“Enough talk.”
“Ngh.”
Rio’s movements were clearly sluggish—probably because of the pain. He was struggling to keep up with swinging attacks that were nothing but speed. Even then, he somehow managed to gain some distance between them.
“Now, hurry up and die.” Erica aimed where Rio stood and swung her staff into the ground. A shock wave surged from the point of impact, sending dirt flying. Rio took a large leap back to avoid the area of damage.
“Gah. Urk...” Rio coughed up blood as he moved around vigorously. Erica’s attacks into the ground continued three more times.
“How stubborn.” Erica tried to close in on Rio out of impatience. However...
It’d be bad if this drags out. I have to end it here!
It was Rio’s chance for a counterattack. He sharpened his senses, readying himself to land the finishing blow the moment she approached.
“It’s over.” Erica let her physical body enhancement do the rest of the talking and swung her staff down early. Rio ended up swinging his sword belatedly. He could feel the damage to his body surpass the point of what he could ignore with a physical enhancement, but—
“Nn!”
It was Rio who predicted correctly. He used the momentum of Erica’s downward swing and pushed his sword down on the tip. The bishop’s staff slammed into the ground with tremendous force, sending dirt flying.
Foreseeing that, Rio took a huge leap forward and used his momentum to aim a knee strike at Erica’s jaw.
“Ah!”
Enough force was applied to Erica’s lower jaw to blow her whole body backwards. If she hadn’t had her body enhanced, the bone would have been shattered to pieces, snapping her spine at the neck.
It was a blow with enough strength to knock out even a physically enhanced body. In fact, Erica reeled from the damage too, but...
“...”
As she flew backwards, Erica swung her staff from left to right with her dominant hand. She was trying to blow away Rio, who was yet to land on the ground after getting in his strike. Rio seemed to have predicted that Erica was still conscious, as he grabbed her shoulder before she could fall backwards and pulled her closer, lifting her body. By the time he released his hand, he was back on the ground with corrected footing.
In contrast, Erica tried to thrust her staff forward with all her might when Rio released her, but she ended up leaning too far forward, staggering off-balance.
“Ngh.” Rio ignored the pain in his organs and used that chance to aim a thrust at Erica’s back. Guessing that she would be attacked from behind after finally showing an opening, Erica swung her staff back without looking. But Rio could easily see through such a blow.
He purposefully paused just outside of her reach, resuming his advance after the staff finished its full swing.
“Ah!”
He slipped right up to her front, using the wide opening from her swing to aim his sword, stabbing it into her heart with no hesitation. Then, he gave the blade a firm twist with all his might.
“Guh... Gahah...”
Despite having dealt the finishing blow, Rio’s face looked closer to death. However, once his sword had sunk in far enough, he yanked it out and took as much distance from Erica as he could.
“Heh. Heheh...” Erica had fallen to one knee, but her mouth was twisted into an eerie smirk. The stab wound in her heart quickly dyed her clothes a bloody red. No matter how sturdy a physical body enhancement might be, there was no avoiding death once the heart was pierced through.
“Hah...” Rio was completely out of breath. He stabbed his sword into the ground and used it to support his body as he sank to one knee, just like Erica.
Immediately after, Erica collapsed face down onto the ground. “Hurk... Guh...”
Rio watched Erica’s figure on the ground for a moment before making his approach, all while coughing up blood himself. He then kneeled beside her and flipped her over, checking her for a pulse.
There was a chance she was still alive, so he couldn’t let his guard down yet. He still had his physical body enhancement up as well.
There’s no pulse... She’s dead. The beast has disappeared too.
With that, all the tension in his nerves snapped like a thread.
Everything’s gone hazy... This is bad. I can’t breathe well either. I have to heal myself...and meet up with Aishia...
Struggling to think, Rio staggered to his feet and cast a healing spirit art with poorly controlled magic essence. Then, in order to meet up with the others, he began to walk southwards.
After progressing ten meters or so...
Ha...to... I’m...way...now.
He could hear someone’s voice.
Ai...shia?
Rio fell to his knees, staring forward in a daze. At that moment, Aishia descended before him.
“Everything’s okay now.”
She embraced him gently, wrapping him up in a healing light.
“...”
When Rio fell unconscious, Aishia picked him up and flew south.
◇ ◇ ◇
Far above the skies where Erica lay...
What in the world is that boy, really? He has far more strength than can be explained by a contract with a humanoid spirit. He was able to contend with an awakened hero, no matter how imperfect she may have been.
Reiss stared in the direction that Aishia had flown off to for a while, having seen everything from start to finish.
That aside, this Saint... Just what was she thinking...?
This time, he gazed at Erica lying on the ground, puzzled.
Humans are hard to understand...but whatever. With the Black Knight returning alive, it was a good thing I had Arein and the others on standby.
Reiss took a teleport crystal out of his chest pocket...
“Transilio.”
...and warped to the outskirts of the Galarc Kingdom.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login