〈Chapter 359〉 Disaster, and the Hero (2)

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“See? You crazy bastard.”

Raniel chuckled weakly as she sat on the ground with a broken arm. She spat out a tooth that had rolled around in her mouth.

“A bastard this strong.”

Her nose was broken.

There was no strength in her broken arm. With her whole body aching, Raniel looked at Kyle in front of her, a bitter smile on her lips.

“Does giving up even make sense? Huh?”

“······.”

“Come on, you!”

“…I—”

“Let’s try. Just a little more. You said it’s a dream, right? You wanted to be a hero. Where’s the hero that gives up?”

Slowly lifting her arm, Raniel pointed at Kyle. Unlike the battered Raniel, Kyle stood perfectly fine. She spoke with a voice that seemed to grind out every word.

“You’re still a hero. A symbol of victory. Even now. No matter how much you hold back, I can’t beat you. Even if you cast magic, it would be the same.”

“…You are stronger than me.”

“So what.”

“You… are more of a hero than I am.”

“Don’t give up.”

A hero is a symbol of victory.

Isn’t that the hero you dreamed of, Kyle?

2.

Suddenly recalling the time she fought with Kyle, Raniel focused her eyes. There he was, transformed into a disaster. In his bloated right arm engulfed by the shadow, the Holy Sword was gripped tightly.

No longer shining, the Holy Sword.

The darkened Holy Sword was slicing through everything it touched, coming closer. Tick, tick sounded in the background.

‘…This is insane.’

Her body accelerated. Time felt stretched.

In the slowed-down world, Raniel made a judgment. It was impossible to block that. Instead of stopping it, she had to evade. The moment she tried to block, she would be sliced apart.

Whoooooosh!

Raniel ducked and slipped into Kyle’s arms. Kyle’s sword swished past above her head. What the sword carved through was either empty air or the space above her, making an eerie scratching sound.

Whoosh!

The wind burst from behind her.

The area was slashed apart, and fragments flew everywhere, but without looking back, Raniel thrust out her clenched fist. She aimed to land a blow into the gap created by Kyle as he swung his sword.

Smash.

Just as the spell contained in her fist was about to reach Kyle’s body, Kyle’s body accelerated. Moving faster than Raniel, Kyle extended his left hand, which was not holding the sword.

Crack!

He gripped Raniel’s fist tightly.

As he exerted strength in his grasp, the shockwave that couldn’t burst out turned back toward Raniel. Raniel’s fingers, curled tightly, began to crackle with loud popping sounds.

“…!”

While Raniel grimaced, Kyle still gripped her fist tightly, pulling her toward him.

With a snap, Raniel’s body was dragged closer.

Looking up, she saw Kyle’s sword that had sliced through the air, now redirecting and descending like a guillotine. Eyes wide, Raniel stamped down with her foot to anchor her moving body.

Fixing her body with her right foot, she kicked out with her left foot, striking Kyle’s abdomen. As she kicked, she forcefully pulled her trapped hand free. Her fingers bent and broke with a loud sound, but she didn’t care.

It was better than dying from being sliced by the sword.

Rolling away, Raniel escaped the range of the sword attack. The guillotine-like blade cut through the spot where Raniel had just stood.

Scrape.

Just as the blade’s tip sliced gently into the church floor, Kyle planted his foot down and pivoted. Swoosh, the blade slashed through the ground as its direction changed. The altered trajectory aimed at Raniel’s neck.

An unavoidable attack.

Grinding her teeth, Raniel threw a punch. A massive shockwave erupted from her fist aimed at the incoming blade.

Smash.

The shockwave collided with the blade.

The clash happened in a split second, and the result was quickly apparent. The blade sliced through the shockwave entirely. As she punched, Raniel leapt backward, but the soaring blade left a long gash across her neck.

Thud, blood burst forth.

An unbelievably sharp blade.

Even without swinging at full power, the sword’s deadly force remained undeterred by the shockwave created from her Smash. Gripping her bloody neck, Raniel stumbled back.

“······.”

Kyle did not pursue immediately.

He merely raised his sword slowly and looked at her, as if promising to shatter whatever she threw at him head-on, making her grit her teeth.

…She knew.

She knew, but it was beyond her imagination.

Exhaling sharply, Raniel withdrew her hand from her neck. Starlight surged forth and the wound began to heal.

Blessing of the Star, Ultra Regeneration.

A recovery power akin to a monster beyond humanity.

This recovery power was proportional to the amount of starlight she possessed, and with Raniel inheriting Kyle’s starlight, her recovery capability far surpassed that of most heroes.

No matter how much she was injured, she would recover instantly.

Raniel interpreted this fact as permission to destroy her own body. She could use all the things she usually didn’t because she was afraid of straining herself, everything she had subconsciously refrained from doing.

“Yeah, why not.”

Let’s do this, you bastard.

Raniel exhaled sharply.

She relaxed her body and took her stance. In turn, Kyle readied himself for battle too. He took a stance to swing his sword. Keeping her eyes fixed on Kyle, Raniel ignited the stockpiled spell.

…Mana, and Starlight.

All heroes were constructed with the understanding that they would awaken as heroes ‘from the very beginning.’ Therefore, mana doesn’t flow within their bodies. The hollow pathways were solely filled with starlight. Even Chloe, a rare case, had her starlight and mana fused together.

But Raniel was different.

The mana she possessed never wavered. It did not mix with anything else. Starlight and mana coexisted within Raniel’s body.

‘…So, this reckless act is possible.’

Raniel chuckled.

Thud, Raniel’s heart thumped heavily.

“Accel.”

The many stockpiled spells were replaced by just one. A massive amount of enhancement spells weighed down on Raniel’s body and released heat. The burden was too much for even her enhanced body as a hero to withstand.

Her skin started to dissolve.

The scorching heat burned her retinas.

But the rising starlight healed Raniel’s body in an instant. Recovery and destruction occurred simultaneously, but recovery held the upper hand for now. However, this was not enough to catch up with him.

So, a little more.

Accel—

The starlight, recovering her body, pushed it beyond its limits. In an instant of surging pain, Raniel staggered but quickly steadied her form.

“Huuh…”

Raniel slowly exhaled, narrowing her eyes. In her narrowed field of vision, only one person remained—Kyle. He too appeared to be readying to swing his sword, looking this way.

Here it comes, Raniel thought at that moment.

Kyle’s arm holding the sword accelerated in an instant. The sword he gripped vanished into thin air. Even in the slowed perception of time, the strike wasn’t visible. But Raniel knew that attack.

Galartrick Style, First Technique, Cutting (????).

What had been a technique that used rapid speed to ‘behead’ the opponent without their awareness transformed into something entirely different when used by Kyle.

Whoooooosh!

The previously invisible sword reappeared, and the area shattered into pieces. The stone floor, columns, statues—everything in sight was sliced apart. Everything flipped and shot upward as if defying gravity.

And there stood Raniel.

In the center of intersecting blade strikes, she stepped one step forward. The moment her foot touched the ground, it erupted with a huge boom, cracking the entire church.

The crossing blade strikes only sliced the ashes away.

As she swung her sword, Kyle’s head snapped to the side. He tried to retract his blade, but something struck his jaw before he could. It was a fist. Kyle’s body flew into the air.

Smash.

The shockwave caused Kyle’s head to tilt back completely. The impact sent Kyle crashing into the wall. He quickly rose to swing his sword, but Raniel was faster.

Smash!

With her boot, Raniel stomped down on Kyle’s hand gripping the sword, pinning it to the wall as she exhaled. To Kyle’s eyes, it looked as if Raniel had vanished and then reappeared right in front of him.

Crick, crack!

The shadowy grip attempted to pry Raniel’s boot away, but to no avail. The starlight embedded in her body and the distorted mana interfered with its movements. Kyle stared at Raniel with wide eyes.

Bloodshot eyes.

Melting flesh.

A body wrapped in starlight and ashes.

She clenched her hand that had stretched behind her tightly. At that moment, the ash that had been swirling around like snow began to gather into Raniel’s fist.

A Tourniquet of Ashes.

Kyle reached out his empty hand.

Raniel swung her fist.

The moment Kyle grasped her fist, the church turned pure white. The exploding heat melted the stone floor, and a beat later, a deafening roar slammed around.

Kroooosh!

All of Kyle’s fingers that had gripped her fist shattered. They turned to ash. His arm, caught in the explosion, charred black. The church walls crumbled. The ground cracked and was pockmarked with holes.

However, Raniel didn’t stop.

The mana enveloping her hand transformed. The instant she saw the treacherous mana, the shadow slithering around Kyle’s arm surged.

Curse to Ashes.

The ashen flames engulfed Kyle.

3.

Woosh!

Fire erupted with heat.

With the coming heat, Raniel narrowed her eyes. Up close, she rapidly unleashed massive spells one after another. No matter how powerful Kyle was…

That’s what she thought at the moment.

The flames that engulfed the area began to fade. Raniel was ramping up her output, yet the flames seemed to be devoured by something. Raniel’s eyes widened. What on earth—

Crick, crack!

From within the flames, Kyle slowly rose to his feet. No matter how much she increased her output, it was useless. Kyle raised his head, piercing through the flames.

His eyes were darkened.

Only then did Raniel see Kyle’s heart. She was faced with the claw that erupted crazily from his heart, the flawed god itself.

Demon Lord (????).

What Kyle held in his body now was not merely a shadow, but the very essence of a distorted god. Although he had lost divinity and immortality, it was a collective of countless curses amassed together.

What had been burned was merely a fragment of it.

That fragment could easily be filled with something else.

Kyle’s previously charred left hand was now perfectly fine.

Fully upright, Kyle pulled out the arm that had been buried in the wall. Raniel stopped producing flames and retreated.

Boom!

Using everything at his disposal, the movements of his enhanced body were astonishing. In an instant, he was far away, and Kyle still couldn’t keep up with that speed. Kyle’s eyes couldn’t precisely read Raniel’s launching position.

But that didn’t seem to matter.

Kyle raised his sword parallel to the ground and pointed it at the sky. With a thud, a great tremor shook Kyle’s body. In that moment, Raniel’s instincts flared.

Something was coming.

Something she didn’t know.

That intuition proved right. Everything visible trembled. The ground shook. The air vibrated. Amidst the commotion, Kyle swung his sword. At that moment, Raniel saw.

“…Oh.”

Everything in sight turned upside down.

Direction became indiscernible. Without knowing where to go, everything twisted about. Amidst the distortion, only Kyle’s form remained intact.

Because it was intact, Raniel could see.

She witnessed Kyle’s sword ripping through space. A colossal blade strike (????) was approaching, devouring everything in its path, so immense that its end was unknowable.

There was no escaping it.

No blocking it.

Death was approaching.

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