〈 Chapter 363 〉 Knight and Superhuman (6)
*
Superhuman (？人).
The biggest characteristic of those called by this name is that the limits of growth disappear.
Superhumans say.
When you break down walls and move forward, all you see is the vast expanse of grasslands. A landscape where, even if you run your entire life, you might doubt if there’s an end—it stretches out before you.
The first superhuman, the first sword master.
Ganikalt van Galatrick saw the same grassland. He swung his sword for a lifetime and managed to reach the very end that so many superhumans doubted existed. Looking up at the sky from there, Ganikalt laughed.
Having reached the end.
He thought his growth had stopped.
Yet, there were still things he had to cut down.
*
A body in tatters. A collapsing physique.
What remained was the untainted human eye and human arms. There was no superhuman body, no divine blessing that healed any injury instantly. However, perhaps because of this, Kyle’s sword became just a little faster.
Slash.
Kyle swung his sword.
No longer did sword energy erupt from the tip of the blade. The moment he swung it, the start and end points connected. The place Kyle aimed to slash was cut with a rustle.
It was not a sword strike that shook the earth.
It was not a sword strike that cut everything in sight.
But it was enough to sever what he wished to cut. With every swing of Kyle’s sword, space split apart. Running between the splintering space was Raniel.
Thud.
The moment she took a step, Kyle swung his sword. Raniel charged forward, and with a thump, she pushed down where she had intended to step, accelerating. Right after, where Raniel had been standing and where she aimed to go split at an angle, with a crack.
SWISH!!
Landing gracefully, Raniel gasped. More wounds had appeared on her body by now. With every breath, blood poured out with a plap.
‘…Can I see it?’
No, that wasn’t the case.
Kyle’s eyes were not tracking Raniel. He still couldn’t catch up to her sudden acceleration. Nevertheless, the sword that Kyle swung was already on its way to where Raniel intended to step.
As if seeing the future.
Veins bulged in Kyle’s eyes.
The eyes wide open were not seeing the present. They saw one step into the future. A super sense collecting information from subtle movements, predicting the future through that information—future sight.
Peering into the future just one step ahead, Kyle swung his sword. The sword cuts the present. The splitting space is the future. Gritting her teeth, Raniel stomped the ground.
Rustle.
Where Raniel had stood, and where she would go, sharply split apart. If she hadn’t changed direction with that moment’s judgment, she would have been caught in the sword strike and died. Cold sweat ran down Raniel’s spine.
‘…One judgment, one mistake.’
That would lead directly to death.
Everything was death. Every place she stepped was death. Yet, Raniel moved on.
Thud, and rustle.
With every step she took, the place she could step on vanished by an inch. Surrounding her were spaces that had been split. Death awaited the moment she touched that space. There was no way to retreat anymore.
So forward, again forward.
While Kyle anticipated her movements and swung his sword, Raniel was also fixated on Kyle’s blade. She accelerated just as his blade cut through the air, narrowly dodging the sword’s strike.
…Naturally.
Raniel didn’t possess any special skills like super sense or future sight. She simply squinted and inferred the future from the information she could see.
The swinging sword tip.
The trembling of space and the echo of air.
Watching Kyle’s swinging blade, Raniel kept moving. Her predictions weren’t as accurate as a superhuman’s. They weren’t precise. Thus, with every step she took, wounds multiplied on Raniel’s body.
Plap.
With every step, blood poured out.
The bloodstains on the ground were the steps she had taken. The wounds didn’t seem to recover. As if something had been cut off.
‘…Forward.’
Only a few steps remained.
As she drew nearer, Kyle’s sword pressed Raniel more quickly and precisely. It was becoming increasingly difficult to predict.
BAM!
Raniel used what she had been saving.
At the moment she skidded to the ground, mana scattered in all directions. Scattering were ashes. Mana was thrown to provoke movements. If it could induce an opening, there would be a gap.
Swish.
Just as Raniel expected, Kyle raised his sword. The tip of that sword was not aimed at Raniel. Without missing the opportunity, Raniel dove towards Kyle.
However, that judgment was wrong.
Kyle’s sword traced a bizarre arc.
The sword, which had soared towards the sky, seemed to fall only to curve and rise diagonally. The rising sword then faced downward again, and the downward sword turned upward once more.
Slash.
Within the frozen time, only Kyle’s sword moved. Raniel could not comprehend the strike. It was an incomprehensible sword. The sword kept moving, scattering afterimages.
Tick, tickticktickticktick.
All the ashes that had been fluttering around were cut. The severed ashes could no longer fulfill their purpose. The flow of mana was severed, and the ashes crumbled into the air.
An endlessly continuing sword.
As the blade moved forward, its last destination was Raniel, who was charging towards Kyle’s side. With their paths converging, Raniel and the sword tip aligned.
Woosh.
Kyle lightly swung his sword.
The blade traced a straight line as it fell. The tip of Kyle’s sword pierced the ground. Raniel’s eyes widened. A line was drawn below her head. The air resonated. The space creaked.
The slicing sound of rustle echoed.
A heartbeat later, blood surged.
2.
Raniel rolled on the ground.
While rolling, she pressed down on her left shoulder. Though she twisted her body to evade the sword strike, a chunk of flesh was severed from her shoulder. With a plop, blood spilled onto the floor.
Flesh and bone were cut in one go.
Her left arm, rendered limp, could no longer be lifted. Gritting her teeth, Raniel pushed herself up with her right arm. Stepping unsteadily, she released the hand pressing against her shoulder.
Sticky blood slowly dripped down.
Raniel shifted the chain wrapped around her left hand to her right. The sight of her left arm hanging limply was just like Kyle in front of her. With a wry smile, Raniel took another step.
The distance had completely closed.
Now, even her punch could reach Kyle with a stretch. It was a position where not Kyle’s strike but the blade he held could cut her down.
…Finally here.
Kyle was still standing there, glaring at Raniel. Upon closer inspection, cracks were etched along Kyle’s legs. Just one step forward and they would crumble.
So he hadn’t moved.
Instead of stepping forward, Kyle raised his sword. Raniel staggered as she moved. Each time Kyle swung, his body crumbled away. Likewise, as Raniel stepped forward, her complexion became paler.
That’s why their fight was brutal.
Kyle swung his sword. Crunch, Kyle’s fingers crumbled. Gliding, Raniel dodged to Kyle’s rear to evade the blade. As she stepped down, her ankle snapped with a crack, causing Raniel to stumble.
With a thud, Kyle stomped down and turned. His sword traced a crescent arc chasing after Raniel. Raniel rolled on the floor, trying to evade the blade. She could not completely avoid it, receiving another wound on her body with a scratch.
Crack.
Kyle’s ankle shattered, causing him to stagger. Kneeling, Kyle thrust his sword into the ground. Using the sword for balance, he swung it again.
It was that kind of fight.
Despite not being attacked, Kyle’s body was disintegrating, and even while evading the sword, endless blood flowed from Raniel.
Splash.
Already, Kyle’s surroundings were stained with blood seeping from Raniel. Stepping through the crimson fluid, she continued moving. Unsteadily, she dodged the increasingly swift sword of Kyle.
Confronted with the limits of her own body. The looming death.
Yet, her consciousness was sharper than ever. Her mind raced quicker than ever. Thoughts accelerating upon thoughts. The prolonged perception of time felt as if the world had stopped.
Drops of blood bouncing in the air.
Dust rising from the soil.
From behind all these unmoving things, Kyle’s sword moved slowly. Reading the trajectory it traced, Raniel kept moving. Always moving, she thought.
She had to find an answer.
At this rate, she would lose. Merely dodging wouldn’t change the outcome. To win, she had to find an answer.
‘I need to land a single hit.’
For that, she needed magic.
Raniel was a mage, and she had always sought answers. Magic was a sort of tool that allowed one to reach those answers. To touch the unattainable, she recalled magic once again.
‘Magic, magic, magic…’
With accelerated thinking, she reached the basics.
The fundamentals of magic (？？).
Magic is the act of gaining the right to interfere with the world through dealings with stars. Creating fire from thin air, raising the ground, sometimes unleashing shockwaves or creating matter.
The impossible. The defiance of providence.
That’s what ‘properly’ wielding magic was.
By offering a price, one receives the right to interfere with providence—this was the essence of magic. Based on that, Raniel constructed her spells. She built her own tower (？？).
‘…But.’
In this moment, it was utterly useless. Everything Raniel had built did not reach Kyle. The moment her incantation was about to manifest by twisting providence, Kyle cut through that distortion.
If it wouldn’t work, she had to rebuild it.
Raniel tore down the tower she had constructed. She didn’t even know what number this was. Digging through the debris, Raniel began to construct her tower from scratch once more.
…Thinking back, it was the same then.
While being eroded by a curse and nearing death, she had built her tower from the beginning like now. Like back then, Raniel accelerated her thoughts. In reality, she dodged the sword and in her mind, constructed and destroyed her tower repeatedly.
The precarious movements continued.
As she bled and neared death, Raniel’s thoughts raced even faster. The accelerated thinking revealed far too much to Raniel. Memories of her research into magic flashed by, and countless memories tangled in her mind.
Using those memories, she built her tower.
Many towers rose, and many towers crumbled. Countless processes repeated. Then, at a certain moment, Raniel’s vision suddenly grew blurry.
It was at that moment.
A completely different landscape began to come into view.
3.
Time had frozen.
In a blurry vision filled with all sorts of overlapping memories, Raniel saw an entirely different scenery. What lay before her was a vast expanse of grassland. A sight she had never seen before.
The grassland was filled with the ruins of her broken towers.
As if revealing her inner self, the wreckage of smashed and collapsed towers filled the place, and Raniel looked ahead. In the distance, there it was—Kyle.
Kyle stood further ahead than her.
Seeing Kyle, who was ahead of her, Raniel unconsciously reached out her hand. But the hand she stretched out did not touch Kyle.
Tap.
What her hand reached was a transparent wall.
A wall she had never known was there, yet had always been keeping her trapped. Beyond that wall was Kyle. Raniel chuckled involuntarily.
…He was always the one who chased after her from behind.
To allow him to catch up, Raniel had always walked while looking back. Looking at Kyle following her, Raniel used that as motivation to stride forward. She had sworn to stand before him as long as he chased his dream.
However, Kyle was no longer behind her. He was no longer chasing her.
He had moved ahead. He had gone to a place she could not reach. Thus, Raniel looked forward, where Kyle stood. That wall she thought didn’t exist was blocking her.
Wall, wall, wall, a limit she must overcome.
She had to get over this wall to reach Kyle.
She had to grab hold of the one who was going the wrong way. Raniel reached her hand toward the transparent wall. Stopped by the wall, her hand couldn’t reach.
She needed something. She needed something.
To chase after him, Raniel had to let go of something. Raniel looked at her palm. Within it glimmered starlight. It was something she had not possessed. It had been planted in her without permission.
…A soul capable of withstanding the stars.
It was something Raniel had always longed for.
Because of lacking this, Raniel had always been broken. She drew closer to destruction without being able to withstand the power. Aware of that truth, Raniel moved forward nonetheless.
Her soul transformed.
With a smile, Raniel clenched her fist. All the starlight she possessed gathered in her grasp. Raniel punched toward the wall.
Crash!
The sound of shattering glass resounded.
As the wall crumbled, Raniel returned to reality. The moment she returned, starlight surged madly from her body. Her soul screamed under the unbearable force.
Yet, Raniel moved forward.
Before her was Kyle swinging his sword.
The strike tearing through space was sharper than any blade she had seen until now. The fingers holding the sword were crumbling away.
‘The final blow.’
Just as Raniel was making her decisive move, Kyle was also wielding what would be his final sword stroke.
Tick, tickticktick.
An unavoidable blow, neither evasion nor defense was possible.
Faced with the impending death, Raniel instead stepped forward. Her wide-open eyes did not waver.
