〈 Chapter 300 〉 Intersection (4)
*
With a broken nose and blood flowing, Kyle suddenly remembers the past. It was a memory from quite a while ago, not exactly a pleasant one.
When was that?
It must have been a few months after the encounter with the Demon Lord. He can’t quite recall what he looked like back then, but it surely wasn’t a sight to behold.
So that’s what that guy did.
“Get up.”
“I said get up.”
Grabbing him by the collar, he was dragged out into the rain-soaked tent. Throwing Kyle into the mud, Raniel rolled up her sleeves and tossed aside her gloves.
“Let’s fight, you little brat.”
Then, she immediately threw a punch at Kyle’s face.
Just like back then, he thought if he let her hit him a bit, she’d eventually tire out. If she stopped being a nuisance, he’d take whichever punches she threw. He probably thought something like that.
But it didn’t last long.
Raniel was more persistent than Kyle expected, and that punch was more vicious than he could have imagined. Eventually, after his nose was broken and his lips split, Kyle finally began to fight back.
They traded blows for a while.
Thinking he’d end it after taking a few hits fell flat, as Kyle ended up breaking Raniel’s arm and shattering her nose in a similar state. It was an expected outcome, considering Raniel didn’t even cast any spells back then.
“Please.”
Yet, even with a broken arm, Raniel grabbed Kyle’s collar and kept throwing punches at his face.
“Show me what you’ve got. Please. Please, you little brat. Please!”
Raniel shouted.
“If you just drop your sword here, what does that mean for all those who died trying to save you?”
Countless knights.
“What about Uncle Kuntel?”
A mentor.
“What becomes of me, you little brat?”
And herself.
Having come this far, she screamed that they had to see it through. To Kyle, it felt like someone was shouting from very far away.
“Well.”
So maybe…
“What a waste.”
That past self probably replied like that. What kind of expression did Raniel have back then? He couldn’t quite recall that either…
“You crazy brat.”
Most likely, she had an expression similar to the girl right in front of him now. Kyle looked at the girl clutching his collar. A girl whose forehead was scraped and bleeding.
“Listen up, you little shit. I’m not saying it twice.”
Amidst the flowing ashen hair, her blue eyes are revealed. Different from the other, yet reminiscent of her blue eyes.
“I’m Raniel.”
“…”
“I’m Raniel van Trias.”
Though she said she wouldn’t say it twice, Rania ended up saying it again and suddenly punched Kyle’s face one more time, seemingly irritated.
“Ugh, damn it…”
What is all this nonsense?
Muttering to herself, Rania stood up. Staggering, she brushed her hair aside. It was a mess. It was less an honorable duel and more of a street fight, and she couldn’t quite recall what happened midway.
‘Well, at least…’
As long as she got it.
The objective was achieved. Thinking that, Rania glanced at Sara. Nodding as she pointed to the barrier, Sara sighed and stretched out her hand.
Just as the barrier was about to break.
“No.”
A voice came from behind.
Rania turned around.
“You’re not Raniel.”
Propped up on only his upper body, Kyle looked at Rania and continued speaking.
“You can’t be Raniel.”
A brief silence.
“Wow.”
Finally, Rania let out a sarcastic chuckle.
She stopped herself from going beyond the barrier and stepped toward Kyle. The first step was light, but not the second.
Thud, tap,
With a full-speed run-up, Rania lifted her foot right in front of Kyle.
Then, like kicking a ball, she swung it forward.
Bam!
Rania’s boot connected with Kyle’s face.
2.
After the duel wrapped up, Rania and Kyle sat side by side on two chairs that Sara had dragged in. Sara sighed as she held Rania’s chin.
“You haven’t changed a bit, really.”
“What?”
“Why are you being so rough? You look like a noble lady, but your fighting style is like that of a berserker.”
“I’ll do with my body as I see fit… Aaaah!”
“Shut up.”
Sara slapped Rania’s scraped forehead with her palm, injecting divine power. The torn skin and broken nose returned to their places.
“Your fingers are broken too. How hard did you hit? Give it here. I’ll fix it.”
“I can do it too…”
“Enough, just hand it over.”
With a tight grip on her wrist, she began to reset the bones. Rania bit her lip hard to endure, but she couldn’t help screaming at Sara.
“Pain relief spell, you crazy bitch!”
“What? The person who used to twist their fingers while chanting spells is complaining? Stop whining.”
“Aaaahhhh!”
That scream was no exaggeration.
From the beginning, Sara had zero consideration for the patient while resetting bones, always delivering fiery pain in the process.
“Yaaaah!”
As Rania twisted and turned in agony, Kyle silently rose from his seat.
“Where are you going, Kyle?”
“I don’t need any healing.”
Kyle lightly grasped at the air.
Starlight gathered, and the Holy Sword caught in Kyle’s hand. Then, the absurd regenerative power of a hero reset his body once more.
All his injuries healed up.
It barely took three seconds.
“Damn it. Why am I the only one suffering?”
Watching that unfold, Rania clicked her tongue.
As if she was too tired to speak any further, Rania sighed while Kyle looked down at her silently.
“What are you staring at.”
“…”
“Speak, you brat.”
After a brief silence, Kyle finally spoke.
“I don’t fully believe you.”
Oh great, here we go again.
With a worn-out expression, Rania looked directly at Kyle. Should she hurl some curses at him? As she contemplated this, she saw Kyle’s expression and shut her mouth.
“But.”
The way he looked at her was different from before.
Kyle trailed off.
“I can’t deny everything. I’m not sure myself. So…”
Kyle spat out.
“I’ll just have to wait and see for now until I’m convinced.”
Saying that, Kyle turned to leave.
After staring at his retreating figure for a while, Rania turned to look at Sara.
“What’s he talking about?”
“It seems like he’s going to think about it.”
“Why is he saying it so complicatedly? The brat has picked up some airs he didn’t have before.”
“…Is it only you?”
“What?”
“Hand over your other hand too.”
Yaaaaah, the scream reverberated.
*
Kyle feels confusion in this moment.
His mind is in turmoil. He once had certainties, but even those certainties are wavering now. Thus, amidst the chaos in his head, Kyle decided to do what he usually does.
He grasped at the air.
The Holy Sword appeared, and Kyle gripped its hilt tightly. The tangled thoughts cleared up like a canvas being painted white. All distractions vanished.
“…”
Kyle silently looked up at the sky.
The stars are shining. The Stars spoke.
【It’s time.】
【Prepare yourself.】
【Get ready to fulfill the contract.】
Three sentences.
Three warnings.
“Not yet.”
Kyle shook his head.
“Not yet, it’s not the time.”
The stars fell silent.
Holding the Holy Sword, Kyle closed his eyes. As he did, memories of landscapes he had recalled countless times over the past few years flooded back. The black rain falling from the sky, the murky water pooled on the ground, the presence of the Otherworld flowing and flowing.
Something that should not exist in this world.
Something that has deviated from providence.
Something from the outside.
The Master of the Demon Lord.
Nothing can stop it.
What can stop it isn’t some mere imperfect god chosen to exist. Only the most perfect being to set foot on this land can stop it.
A perfect being.
A being beyond human.
Kyle had seen the true meaning of a superhuman there. He continuously replays that breathtaking vision in his mind. The radiant light he saw that day settles within his mind like a white canvas.
So brilliant.
So dazzling.
A brilliant light unreachable to him occupies Kyle’s thoughts. There was a time when he envied it, suffered from jealousy, but not now. What now resides in his clear mind isn’t some human emotion like longing.
If he had to name that fanaticism.
It would be closer to faith.
3.
In the place indicated by the prophecy, Raniel stood.
It was a vast expanse of snowfield. Smoothing her hair blown by the wind, Raniel took a long breath.
In a month, the Death’s Blade arrives here.
What was granted to her was a month’s time, and this was the second time she had so much time to prepare for a calamity. Most disasters tend to appear suddenly and without warning.
“Reminds me of when I caught the Black Dragon.”
Raniel mumbled to herself unexpectedly.
She had prepared in a similar manner back then.
With ample time, she faced the Black Dragon ready as best as possible. At that time, Raniel inscribed circuits in the gorge over the month.
A war of attrition that took a month.
Though Kyle’s Holy Sword dealt the finishing blow, it was Raniel’s spell that tied up the Black Dragon. Just how many spells did she inscribe then?
If her memory served her right, it was just over a thousand.
So, this time, how many circuits must she draw? How many circuits must she prepare, and how much mana must she stock up to halt death?
She didn’t know.
There’s no way to know.
Whether her spells will even work in front of death is uncertain. However, what Raniel has to do doesn’t change. Like always, she rolled up her sleeves and mumbled.
“I guess I’ll just have to try and shove everything in.”
She bets her entire being.
She’ll do everything she can.
‘After all, mages become more complicated the longer the preparation period is…’
She’ll have to become quite complicated herself.
Raniel looked around.
The pure white expanses of snow appeared to her as nothing but canvas. She was about to paint on that endless canvas. A grand picture, one that could stop even death for a moment.
A month is all she had.
What was to be stopped was death.
The time and purpose were clear.
With those two elements determined, she had to get to work immediately. Taking a short breath, Raniel got to work right away. First off, she had to clean the canvas she was about to paint on.
“Ashes to Ashes.”
On the first night, the snow on the Kennel plateau disappeared.
*
“…What’s all this?”
“What does it look like? I’m preparing.”
Sara blinked in confusion.
There were snowstorms hitting the snowfield day and night, yet snow didn’t accumulate here. The piled-up eternal snow disappeared, revealing frozen ground.
On that ground, Raniel was inscribing something.
Even holding a staff she didn’t normally use, she was drawing symbols on the ground. Once the symbols were completed, she poured mana potions onto them with all her might. Sara couldn’t figure out what Raniel was doing.
But…
The master of the White Tower, Selly Devela, who had come to provide mana potions to Raniel, could roughly understand what Raniel was working on.
“…Are you trying to build a tower?”
Selly murmured.
When constructing a tower, one usually engraves circuits on the wall and creates it into a fortress. To Selly, what Raniel was doing didn’t seem any different.
Something that usually required dozens of high-ranking mages.
Connecting circuits and intertwining them, turning the tower into an impregnable fortress. That’s the work that one mage was now doing on frozen ground as her canvas.
“It’s different.”
Raniel replied.
“Circuits inscribed in a tower are mostly for protection, aren’t they? What I’m doing here has a different direction.”
She tapped the circuits with her toes.
“If it doesn’t work out, I’m going to wipe everything out.”
“…Wipe what out?”
“What do you think?”
Raniel smiled.
A very chilling smile.
*
