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〈 Chapter 303 〉 How to Face Death (2)
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Night was deepening.
Looking up at the sky, the stars shimmered softly. The constellations formed by connecting the stars matched precisely with what Sara had seen in her dreams.
The predetermined future is approaching.
The time the prophecy pointed to was at dawn, so now, less than half a day remained until the showdown. In the meantime, they stood on the snowy field, quietly performing the tasks only they could do.
“The divine desires… in this place…”
Sara recited a prayer she had memorized her whole life.
No longer does she blindly trust the divine, nor does she believe that the existence above is perfect. Yet, she prays.
Not to the heavenly god, but for the human named Kyle Toven whom she believes in.
A prayer without faith should not produce miracles.
However, the heavenly god willingly answers Sara’s prayers. A brilliant radiance surged, ebbing and flowing around Sara. The flooding light seeped into Kyle’s body.
Sara repeated this several times.
Listening to the recited prayer, Raniel approached Kyle’s side.
“Kyle.”
The wind blew.
Raniel’s ashen hair fluttered in the breeze.
“First, there’s one thing I need to tell you.”
“What is it?”
“It doesn’t really matter whether you think of me as Raniel or not anymore. We’ve come this far, and you have to cooperate with me, so…”
Kyle remained silent.
Raniel continued to speak.
“However, if you think of me even a little as Raniel… let me just say one thing.”
Taking a deep breath, Raniel opened her mouth.
“I know you well.”
Not the strongest hero, Kyle.
But the boy who dreamed of being a hero, Kyle.
“I thought I knew you well.”
Kyle turned to look at Raniel.
His bluish eyes were deeply settled. His voice reflected the same depth. There was no lightness as usual; there was no hostility toward Kyle in her tone either.
“So, I think I made a mistake.”
“…”
“I expected too much from you. I thought you could do it. I was sure you could truly become a hero.”
Raniel chuckled softly.
“Seeing how difficult it is to live by ideals, how perilous that path is… I began to think I was too harsh on you.”
She had always harbored doubts.
But she did not want to accept that she might have been wrong. After all, she believed she should always be right.
However, that was not the case.
She heard Destel’s words. She witnessed Galahal’s end.
In the end, Raniel realized that her way was wrong. There may have been a better way. When she came to that realization, Raniel regretted it.
“There could have been a better way.”
It was merely a hypothetical future.
Imagining that future was meaningless.
Yet, Raniel dared to envision that future.
“So…”
Raniel spoke.
“Right now, this is a request.”
“…A request?”
“A request, not a compulsion.”
Raniel smiled.
“Do your best. Hold out against Ganikalt, and if something unexpected happens, just endure. You’re the only one who can withstand that monster.”
Knowing it was an unreasonable request, Raniel smiled.
“Of course, I’m not saying go alone.”
She lightly tapped her hand on her palm.
“I won’t let you die, no matter what.”
“Are you thinking of burning your lifespan?”
“If necessary.”
Kyle spat out.
“Don’t make a deal.”
He gripped the sword’s hilt tightly.
“There’s no need for that.”
“Oh.”
“I have my own methods. You’re not the only one who’s been pondering.”
“Is that so?”
With the holy sword in hand, Kyle took a step forward.
“Raniel is not wrong.”
As he stepped, Kyle said.
“She was always right. Always noble, and always perfect. I have no intention of doubting what she has done. It’s a fact that she was right.”
Kyle did not look back.
“Only I was wrong.”
“…”
“I was inadequate. I couldn’t follow her. I was not a perfect human like Raniel. I couldn’t become her.”
Because of that.
“I couldn’t bear it.”
He didn’t say what it was that he couldn’t bear.
He simply lifted the holy sword.
“That’s all there is to it.”
The holy sword shone platinum.
“No matter how much time passes… it will someday have to be righted. Even if it’s not today, it must happen eventually. That is my responsibility.”
Kyle smiled as he drew the holy sword, surrounded by starlight.
“I’ll save my apologies for then.”
Raniel also chuckled softly, following in Kyle’s footsteps in the snow. As she stood by Kyle, she pulled her gloves down.
“Indeed.”
The deep night was coming to an end.
The sun rose beyond the horizon. The sunlight shone obliquely on the snowy field, and the wind blew from beyond the horizon.
A gust of wind.
“It’s coming.”
A wind carrying the stench of decay.
“It seems so.”
A wind symbolizing death.
With a gust, the horizon split open. With a rustling sound, snowflakes danced about. Amidst the swirling snowflakes, something began to reveal its form.
A gigantic figure.
An enormous right arm woven from countless lives.
A left arm symbolizing human pride.
Once a hero, and once the strongest swordsman, but now a fallen sword of shadows. The greatest swordsman who twists even the very fabric of fate emerges.
Ganikalt, the Death’s Blade.
The most feared calamity.
Death arrived with the dawn. As if to flaunt its existence, it approached slowly with heavy steps. Although a fair distance away, death instilled an instinctual fear in humans, disregarding the space between them.
It’s terrifying.
Frantically terrifying.
Hands and feet trembled, ready to collapse at any moment.
Yet, no one standing here did such a thing. The saint struck her sacred attire, strengthening the surrounding circuits, while the archery master aimed her bowstring at death. The hero readied himself, gripping the holy sword.
“Hey, Kyle.”
And.
“I’m going.”
The sage clapped her hands together.
Mana blossomed between her fingertips. The sheer volume of mana, unbelievable for a single human to contain, filled the area.
Accumulated and accumulated over time.
The sage pressed her palms against the circuits etched into the snowfield. The circuits reacted with her mana. With the incoming heat, the snow that had piled atop the circuits evaporated in an instant.
Chiiiirrrr!
The sound of something burning.
The rising heat and agitated mana.
With hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of circuits connected, the sage smirked and chanted one word.
“Ignite.”
Raniel, the Ashen Mage’s emblematic spell.
A commandword that activates all spells.
The moment one spell permeated the first circuit.
Whaaaam!
Stronger than the rising sun, a flash of light illuminated the snowy field.
2.
A line of evacuation continued.
Escaping death, the fleeing line had reached the northernmost edge, the border. An emergency shelter was prepared there. When the sun rises, they would need to head a bit further from here.
The knights assisting in the evacuation gazed up at the rising sun. Were the hero and his party standing against death over there in the distance?
While those thoughts lingered.
Flash.
The knight saw a dazzling flash ascend into the sky. It resembled a pillar of light. The intense brightness pushed aside the gentle sunlight cast by the rising sun.
What is that?
Such questions were short-lived as the ground shook with a boom.
*
“…Belnoa, look at that.”
“I’m watching.”
Chloe stared blankly at the horizon.
Far from here, at the opposite end of the North, nestled in the Kennel Snowfield, a colossal beam of light shot up. Chloe could easily discern that it was a mass of mana.
She had never seen a spell of that magnitude before.
What on earth was going to happen?
At that moment, like branches reaching out, hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of circuits sprouted centered on the beam of light, simultaneously blooming. What was created was a single massive tree. It resembled a tower.
A large-scale magic she had never seen before.
Only one human could produce something like that.
“…Raniel van Trias.”
The sage, Raniel van Trias.
At that moment, both Chloe and Belnoa envisioned the great mage who would be at that place. They could not dare to predict the result that this beam of light would produce. They could only stare blankly at the majestic scenery.
And then, the circuits emitted a flash of light.
WUUUUUUUUM!
Even from afar, a snowstorm surged towards them.
The ground shook, and the sudden rush of wind rustled their clothes. Those who felt that tremor, those who saw the beam of light, instinctively imagined.
Resistance was beginning.
To resist death, the peak of humanity stood there confronting calamity.
3.
The beam of light rose high into the sky, resembling a tower.
A tower built by humanity to reach the heavens.
A tower filled with the essence of magic and sorcery, walked by dozens, hundreds of mages. The beam of light created by a single mage standing here was not that different.
To confront the calamity.
To make the impossible possible.
Raniel van Trias revealed her all.
The path she walked her entire life, all she had built up, thus, everything as a Mage. The beam of light that appeared here was akin to the very nature of the magic that Raniel had walked.
Self-righteous.
Violent.
Disordered and irregular.
She used everything she had.
The beam of light emitted dazzling radiance.
The circuits engraved into the ground for a month shot upwards along the beam towards the sky. Reflecting each other against the blue sky, the circuits shone with one another.
Crack, crack, crack.
The immense mana and multitude of circuits warped space itself. The sky creaked. The area surrounding the beam of light began to distort. And then, Raniel snapped her fingers.
Snap, and a small flame flickered to life.
The flame spread along the beam of light.
An absurdly large quantity of circuits emitted light simultaneously. In a burst of brilliance, a loud explosion roared, the tearing noise erased even the sound itself.
BOOOOOM!
The ground shook. Snowflakes soared.
The snowstorm that soared into the sky obscured their view. Amidst the blizzard, spells collided, creating small explosions. All of it was aimed at death.
To block the approaching death, the sage risked everything she had.
“Prepare.”
However, the sage knew.
“It’s coming soon.”
That merely wasn’t enough.
This was only a signal flare to announce the beginning.
Raniel van Trias knew well.
“Bow down.”
And then, the hero.
“I shall cut.”
Stepping forward, he seized Raniel’s neck with one hand. Simultaneously, a chilling sound echoed from beyond the blizzard.
Swish.
The sound of a sword being swung.
Shush.
The subsequent sound of a decisive slice.
A line was drawn across the soaring snowstorm. That was the end. All the spells, the flames and lights produced by the spells, were all severed. Everything returned to nothingness.
With just a single swing of the sword, it was done.
As Raniel looked at the few strands of hair that had been cut, she felt a chill. Yet she did not question this nonsensical situation.
‘That’s just how calamities are.’
She did not think that such a small action could stop death. This was merely preparatory work. Raniel stared wide-eyed beyond the blizzard.
Swish.
The bisected snowstorm scattered.
As the scattering snowstorm parted, death appeared.
Even after unleashing a large-scale spell that erased everything around, not a speck of soot remained on Ganikalt’s body.
Click.
Death stopped, keeping a slight distance.
Slowly, he raised his sword.
“I’ll ask.”
The tip of that sword pointed at Kyle Toven.
“Are you a knight?”
Death asked.
In response to that question, Kyle lifted his sword.
“Kyle Toven.”
Kyle said.
“I am a hero.”
He took a step forward.
Though the spell that swept the area did not affect Ganikalt, it successfully altered the terrain. The altered terrain resembled a canyon. This landscape was all too familiar to Kyle Toven.
“Go, Kyle.”
When he beheaded the Black Dragon.
“I’m going to collapse the canyon. Buy me time.”
Even in the rematch with Ganikalt.
“Though it’s different from the place I learned to wield my sword, the environment is similar here. I would like to teach you swordsmanship in this canyon. Is that alright?”
Even when he learned from the Sword Master, Kuntel.
“Of course.”
Kyle was standing in a canyon much like the present one.
Facing his opponent between the jagged cliffs, Kyle had always aimed his sword. He would do so again this time.
Swish.
With a near vertical slope beneath his feet, Kyle began to run. He dashed, stepping on the cracked walls. Stars gathered around his being, accelerating his movements.
“May the divine bless the hero.”
Sara’s blessing overlapped on Kyle’s body.
Whish!
Following the racing Kyle, an eerie trajectory was drawn by the moonlight arrow, advancing with a line of light.
Swoosh!
Between the canyons, numerous chains rattled loudly along the path toward Ganikalt. Kyle raced forward atop the chains.
“Is that so?”
And, the Death’s Blade.
“You were the knight I encountered back then.”
He threw the sword into the air.
The sword, which spun through the air, was caught not by the hand of a beast. Ganikalt caught the sword with his left hand. The atmosphere shrouded by death shifted instantly.
“Show your pride, slave of the stars.”
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