The Girl Raised by the Death God Holds the Sword of Darkness in Her Arms - Volume 2 - Chapter 6.4

IV

The battle between Olivia and Rosenmarie began.

Their swords clashed together over and over, until Olivia struck down with a diagonal slash. Rosenmarie twisted to avoid the blade, simultaneously throwing a powerful kick at Olivia’s stomach. Olivia stepped back swiftly, sending up a cloud of dust as she responded in kind with a kick of her own. Their legs slammed together in midair. Both stopped for a moment, then leapt back, putting distance between them.

So this is who I’m dealing with, Rosenmarie thought. I guess she did say she was going to kill me. It’s not just her skill with a blade—she can go hand-to-hand too. I can see how she took out Vollmer now. After exchanging a few blows, Rosenmarie’s blade still hadn’t even come close to striking Olivia. She was running through her next moves in her mind, planning out her strategy, when Olivia called over to her.

“You’ve got lots of odh too, Rosenmarie! Way more than that Vollmer guy I killed the other day,” she said, sounding delighted. “Z told me people like you are really rare, but there are actually quite a few around, huh? Or maybe I’m just lucky!” She finished on a thoughtful note, then sank lower into her stance.

Lots of odh...? Rosenmarie ran the word over in her mind. She had the feeling she’d heard it somewhere before. But it looked like any questions she had would have to wait. Olivia’s body language made it obvious she was preparing to move. Rosenmarie raised her sword—

Where’d she come from?! Without anything discernible giving away her plan of attack, Olivia closed the gap between them, her blade a blur as it stabbed out at Rosenmarie’s face. Rosenmarie used the middle of her blade to fend Olivia off, linking the parry into a downward blow at her head. Olivia turned to one side to evade her, then rotated fully around to bring her sword cleaving around from the left. Rosenmarie immediately shifted her sword to her other hand then thrust it down to interrupt the trajectory of the blow, throwing up a shower of sparks and an earsplitting screech.

Rosenmarie exhaled. “Close one,” she said. “I see why everyone was so scared of the God of Death. That’s an impressive move.”

“You too, Rosenmarie,” Olivia replied. “This reminds me of training with Z!” A barely perceptible wistful look flickered across her face. Rosenmarie saw an opening there and struck, but Olivia was ready—she dodged, and Rosenmarie’s sword went slicing through an unfortunate tree instead. With a creaking groan, it toppled over. A flock of birds burst out of the canopy, shrieking in panic, followed by an almighty thud as the trunk hit the ground. Then the fresh stump burst into flames.

“Huh?” Olivia gaped at the burning tree. Then her eyes turned to Rosenmarie’s sword.

Rosenmarie chuckled. “I think I managed to surprise you!”

“Yeah,” Olivia replied. “That’s a really interesting sword you’ve got.”

Rosenmarie couldn’t help but laugh at the longing in her eyes. “You’ve already got your own interesting sword,” she said. “I assume now you see what’ll happen when I cut you?”

“I’ll catch fire too, you mean? Mm, no thanks,” said Olivia, not sounding especially concerned. “That looks really, really hot.” She gave Rosenmarie a friendly smile.

“I haven’t gotten to cut a person with this mage-enchanted sword yet, and I can’t wait to see how well you burn.”

“Mage-enchanted sword?” Olivia said, cocking her head. “I feel like I remember hearing about mages. Do they use magic too?”

“Magic?” It was Rosenmarie’s turn to look confused. She thought that that much would be obvious, but Olivia sounded as though she spoke of something different. Meanwhile, Olivia frowned, wondering why Z had never taught her about “mages.”

Unlike Felix, Rosenmarie didn’t involve herself with mages. The inscrutable nature of their powers meant she’d always kept her distance. It just didn’t make sense to her that mere humans were able to wield what was supposed to be divine power, though if she said that in front of anyone from the Illuminatus Church, they’d probably blow their top.

At the end of the day, Rosenmarie just used whatever tools she had available to her.

“Well, whatever,” she said. “I don’t really care how it works.” Then she lunged forward as though she meant to swing at Olivia, lightning-fast. Her actual strike, though, was so slow a child could have dodged it. That was Rosenmarie’s fighting style—weaving together swift and slow strikes, and along with her signature footwork, she appeared to relax and let down her defenses just enough to throw her opponent off guard. Most opponents lost their flow and, unable to recover, ended up face down in the dirt.

Not Olivia, though. She dodged and parried everything Rosenmarie threw at her, adding counterstrikes of her own. Rosenmarie swung low, trying to cut Olivia’s legs out from under her, but her blade met nothing as Olivia flipped through the air and landed lightly back on the ground. She moved seamlessly, as though her heavy armor weighed nothing.

Rosenmarie whistled. “Are you hiding wings back there or something?” she said. “Even if you are, I can’t believe you just brushed off my best swordplay like that... At this rate, I’ll lose my flow.”

“You’re really tough,” Olivia admitted. “Apart from Z, no one’s held off my attacks this long before.”

“You keep talking about this ‘Z,’ but who is this guy? Your master?”

Olivia was a teenage girl with unbelievable fighting ability. It wasn’t crazy to think there could be a genius swordsman out there who’d trained her, but it would be more shocking if such a person didn’t exist, really. Unless, of course, they actually were a god of death.

“Master? Is Z my master...?” Olivia said, considering. “No, I don’t think that’s quite right. Huh. I wonder what I am to Z?”

“How the hell should I know?!” Rosenmarie snapped back without thinking. Olivia cackled, clutching her stomach.

“Good point,” she admitted, then cocked her head and twirled her sword, “By the way,” she added, “I’ve been wondering about your sword technique this whole time. I’m sure I’ve seen it somewhere before.”

From the time she was a child, Osvannes had taught Rosenmarie the basics of her bladework. She had since developed her own personal style, but the fundamentals remained the same. Olivia was essentially saying she saw the echo of Osvannes’s technique in her. Rosenmarie felt a chill crawl up her spine.

“It can’t be...” she hissed. “It was you? You killed General Osvannes?” As soon as the words left her mouth, it all made sense. He might have been old, but none of the other Seventh Legion rabble would have stood a chance against Osvannes.

“General Osvannes...” Olivia said, trying to remember. Then she snapped her fingers and said cheerfully, “Yes, that’s it! You fight just like Mr. Osvannes!”

“Answer the question!” Rosenmarie shouted.

“Oh, um, yes, I was the one who killed him,” Olivia said lightly. Rosenmarie felt something inside her snap.

“Olivia...” she began, “Starting now, I’m going to cut another piece off of you every five minutes until you die.” Her voice grew louder as she went on, until she was shouting. “I’m going to make sure you suffer before you die!”

“Oh? Weren’t we going to be friends?” Olivia replied, but Rosenmarie wasn’t listening. Baring her teeth, she lunged at Olivia with the force of an oncoming storm. With Osvannes’s murderer here, right in front of her, she could no longer hold her rage at bay. Olivia deftly parried all her strikes, still smiling all the while, but it no longer reached her ebony eyes. Now instead they glimmered like those of a wild beast teasing its prey.

“Hey now,” Olivia said teasingly. “Your technique’s gotten sloppy all of a sudden. What’s the matter?”

“Shut up!” Rosenmarie bellowed, the mockery only fueling her anger. At the same time, however, she could tell something was wrong. Every time Olivia parried her strikes, numbness crept a little further up her arms. Olivia’s attacks were getting more powerful. It was like trying to cut through a lump of iron, and a sense of futility threatened to overwhelm her.

“Damn it!” she yelled, jumping back out of Olivia’s range, then roughly swiped at the sweat that streamed down her forehead. Olivia, as though to show she wasn’t worried, didn’t close in on her. Arvin’s warning flashed through Rosenmarie’s mind.

The shimmers really do know how to analyze a fight. She’s got more endurance than me, to say nothing of her strength... I can’t let this drag on or I’m screwed. Time to get myself under control. Right now I need to be thinking clearly. She took a few deep breaths, then she ran at Olivia at full speed. She focused her mind with razor-sharp intensity, ready to read and react to blows from above, striking down on the diagonal, sweeping around from the side, stabbing forward... Whatever happened, she would counter it. Olivia, however, struck in a way she never saw coming.

A flying blade strike?! Rosenmarie thought as Olivia planted her left foot and her arm swung around, curving like a whip as she threw the ebony blade. There was a roar like a hurricane as the sword hurtled towards Rosenmarie, but she twisted to one side to make herself less of a target, and the blade missed her by a hair’s breadth.

That was too close. There was literally a hair between me and it, she thought. She let out a breath of relief, but as she did so—

“Your guard’s down.”

“Eh—?!” she cried out. Olivia appeared in front of her, already halfway through a kick that tore Rosenmarie’s sword from her hands, then with perfect flow she drove through with her drawn-back fist. Rosenmarie immediately crossed her arms in front of her to defend her torso, but this did nothing to impede Olivia’s blow. There was a thud that shook Rosenmarie’s skull. Her arms bent away at unnatural angles, and Olivia drove into her chest. The impact rippled through her a moment later, so powerful it felt like it would tear right through her. Even her armor did nothing to dull the force.

“Ngh!” Unable to endure any further, she fell to her knees. Another kick smashed into her chin. Her vision flickered as she collapsed onto her back. Olivia placed her foot on Rosenmarie’s chest and pushed down, hard.

“Damn... Damn you!” Rosenmarie yelled.

Olivia giggled. “You’re pretty lively for someone with two broken arms,” she said. “That’ll be thanks to your odh. I think it’s about time to wrap this up, though, don’t you?” She smiled brightly and continued, “I’d like to thank you, Rosenmarie von Berlietta. I get to send Z another tasty meal.” Rosenmarie’s armor made a painful groaning noise, but Rosenmarie herself could do nothing but glare up at Olivia. Just then, she felt the ground rumble with the footsteps of a large group of people.

A voice she knew well called out, “My lady! We’re here to save you!” Rosenmarie tilted her head in the direction of the voice and saw Guyel and his unit with their bows drawn and beginning to shoot. Olivia swiftly retreated, dancing left and right to avoid the arrows.

“I’m so sorry it took us this long, my lady,” Guyel said, rushing to her side.

“Guyel...” Rosenmarie croaked. “You...you’re alive...”

“Yes, my lady. I’m too stubborn to die just yet,” Guyel said with a half-smile, lifting Rosenmarie up gently in his arms. As he did so, pain lanced through her body, but she managed to endure it, though she had to grit her teeth so hard she thought they might crack.

“What of the others?” she asked.

“Forgive me, my lady. I was unable to save the unit assigned to your defense. They were wiped out. But so long as you live, there is yet hope.” He slung Rosenmarie across his shoulders, then shouted to the rest of his soldiers, “I don’t want the death god getting anywhere near us, you hear me?” He finished his orders, then said to Rosenmarie, “We’re retreating, my lady. I know you must be in pain, but please hold on a little longer.”

“N...No!” Rosenmarie cried. “She’s... Osvannes’s killer is...!” They couldn’t retreat. Not while her most hated enemy was right here.

“We’ve lost!” Guyel retorted, then added, “Besides, my lady, how do you intend to fight in that state? I hate this as much as you do, but please, be reasonable.”

Rosenmarie could hear the steel in his words. He was right, and in the end, she couldn’t find the words to contradict him. Forcing down her rage as it tried to overwhelm her again, she finally said, “We retreat.”

Guyel only nodded, and they began to make their way towards the forest...

“Now hold on just a minute! I can’t have you escaping on me!” Olivia said. She felt a bit like she was part of a comedy skit as she chimed in in the middle of the other two’s conversation. At this rate, Rosenmarie was actually going to get away. She tried to chase after them, but the Crimson Knights moved in to block her path. There were around thirty of them, and their eyes told her, as they raised their weapons, that every one of them knew they would die here. Humans were hardest to kill when they got like this—willing to die before they backed down.

Olivia sighed deeply, then murmured, “This might have been a mistake...”