Kak!, the moment Raniel seized Lac’s hand, her body floated in the air. Belnoa swung his arm, holding onto Lac. For a brief moment, both bodies were suspended in midair before landing on the back of the Magol Dragon.
Tak.
Confirming that the two had gotten on, Belnoa hurriedly climbed onto the dragon’s back. Lac and Belnoa wiped their cold sweat and stared ahead, precisely at Raniel, who was perched on the dragon’s back.
“······.”
She silently steadied her breath.
Upon closer inspection, her body was already riddled with wounds. Injuries accumulated from bites and stabbing. From a cauterized wound, pus was oozing out.
No matter how strong Raniel van Trias may be, even she had her limits.
She faced ancient calamities, forgotten gods. She held back hundreds, thousands of forgotten gods while simultaneously confronting Gletus. By that point, her body must have already reached its limit…
‘And on top of that…’
Lac turned his head.
The swaying Magol Dragon maintained a distance from Gletus, circling around him. From the rocking back of the dragon, Lac glared at the traitor.
‘She had to deal with that too.’
Even though the things here are merely fragments of the Demon Lord, the woman standing at the center is certainly not. The overwhelming presence emanating from her made Lac swallow hard, cold sweat trickling down his back.
Even with such an enemy looming, Raniel continued to fight, without a moment’s rest to catch her breath. Lac’s expression distorted as he grasped the situation.
“…Huh.”
Raniel let out a long breath, gripping her knee as she stood up. Lac clenched his teeth while watching her wobble to her feet. Lac opened and closed his mouth repeatedly before finally managing to voice out.
“Master… No, Senpai.”
Lac spoke.
Raniel looked at Lac.
“Make way.”
The words she had spoken moments ago.
Lac repeated them again.
“I will clear the path.”
Lac said while still looking at Raniel.
…Always.
It was always Raniel’s duty to pave the way. So that Lac, Belnoa, Chloe, and Resti could strive and take the stage. She risked her own life to clear a path for them.
That’s why Raniel was always their Master, their teacher, and their benefactor.
‘But, this can’t go on forever.’
Lac clenched his fist tightly.
Hadn’t he been striving to stand on the same stage as the person before him? He couldn’t continue to be just a disciple forever, nor could he remain someone to be protected and cherished. Indeed, that was unacceptable.
He had long since graduated from the Academy.
Now, he must become an independent being.
“Although it’s late.”
Lac firmly gripped the Holy Sword.
“This time, we will clear the path.”
It had always been she who opened the way.
So, this time, they would pave it for her.
To repay the debt they owed her.
“Yes, so please rest as much as you can.”
Belnoa, who overheard Lac’s words, chuckled softly and stood up. The two moved ahead, surpassing Raniel. At that moment, the dragon began to shift its gaze.
Tilting, it started to burrow toward the center.
The Magol Dragon moved more vigorously. Dududududuk, its entire body began to tremble. Raniel, who had been about to stand while gripping her knee, let out a chuckle and plopped down again.
“Now then.”
Sitting down, Raniel looked ahead.
She saw the two standing ahead of her.
“Whoever taught you, must have done an excellent job.”
2.
The Magol Dragon charged toward Gletus in a jagged manner.
The force moving toward the center was ominously fierce. Despite the clawed hands tearing flesh as they rushed forward, the Magol Dragon pressed on toward Gletus.
“······.”
And Gletus.
She lightly gestured toward the oncoming Magol Dragon. The muck swirling around her suddenly evaporated. In an instant, a black divine light flashed.
Pabababababababapak!
The muck flowing along the ground exploded, shooting up in unison. The rising muck transformed into a giant pike. As the Magol Dragon was pierced and crushed under the weight of the pike, it struggled to move forward… but it could not withstand what followed.
Kwajik.
A massive claw formed from the gathered muck grasped the dragon’s head. The larger and smaller claws that rose from the ground held the Magol Dragon’s body and crushed it. As the dragon exploded, flesh sprayed everywhere.
Giant flesh. The mana stones that formed the dragon’s shell.
With the colossal fragments soaring in all directions, the sound of tak, tak, tak echoed ceaselessly. Gletus furrowed her brow. As she gazed intently, two figures repeatedly leapt over the fragments.
Belnoa and Lac.
Gletus reached out toward them, but targeting the two moving chaotically, darting between the fragments, proved difficult. The two were faster than the grasping hands rising from the muck, leaving behind only devastated ground where they’d jumped.
Chwak.
Thus, Lac, who leaped again and again, landed smoothly on an angled fragment. From atop the collapsing shard, Lac inhaled deeply. Then, kuwung. He stomped his foot down, steadying himself.
The Holy Sword of Ganikalt stretched behind him.
Gripping the gleaming platinum sword tightly, Lac uttered incantations. Sequentially releasing the stored spells.
Smite.
Kwaluung, a white flash descended.
Not toward the enemy, but towards Lac himself. It did not stop with just one. The circuits etched on his forearms blazed to life. The kindled circuits transformed into one single spell.
Smite, smite, smite, smite…
With each flash of the white light, the sound kaang resonated. Kaang, clang, kaang… The echoing sound resembled the noise of a sword being tempered. However, even amidst that noise, the sword Lac held stood unwavering. As serene as ever.
Hundreds of smite interfered with the Holy Sword.
Clutching the Holy Sword, which seemed about to break free at any moment, Lac let out a breath and opened his eyes wide.
…The incorporeal sword.
The principle of the sword to reach its pinnacle.
Unlike the ancestors before him, Lac interpreted it differently.
The sword had no form, and thus could be anything. Then, everything he possessed could also be the sword, couldn’t it? Lac regarded everything—his Holy Sword, and the spells entwined within it—as one singular sword. Dozens of spells encompassed it.
With eyes wide open, he observed the sword path.
Wrapped in a torrent of sword energy that felt heavier than any other time, he swung his arm. He swung the sword energetically.
Hooow!
Lac swung his sword toward the converging hands of shadows, the black drops, and the immense pikes blocking his path. At the moment he swung, the sword-tip drew forth a fierce storm. It resembled the blizzards raging down the northern mountains.
The sword energy, taking the form of a snowstorm, swallowed everything in front of it. The sound that resonated upon contact with the sword energy wasn’t the serene slicing sound.
Kagagagagagagagagak!
The sounds of grinding, ripping, and tearing echoed.
The combined spells that merged with the sword energy shattered and broke everything they touched. The raging snowstorm thoroughly devastated everything standing between Gletus and Lac. It carved a gigantic hole between them.
As the gap began to close,
Gletus rebuilt the wall made of hands that had emerged, trying to block the path…
“Belnoa.”
“I know.”
Tak! With a leap, Belnoa sprang up beside Lac, showing no intention of blocking the gap. He soared into the air, rushing toward the black tempest.
Tic, tidididic.
Cracks formed along Belnoa’s forearm.
The scales of a black dragon swallowed half of Belnoa’s arm. He swung the stretched dragon’s claw. Black turbulence spiraled around his five fingers.
Kiiiiiing!
With a sharp sound, a fierce wind swept across the battlefield. The origin of the dry wind was indiscernible, soon to become a storm. The black tempest clashed against the waves, scattering them everywhere that attempted to fill the gap Lac had created.
Muck surged in all directions.
Finally, the path was opened.
Having been disoriented by the backlash of the technique, Lac and Belnoa plummeted towards the ground. Yet just before they fell, Belnoa flicked his last finger. Summoning an upward draft from the ground to the sky.
Hooow.
The rushing upward draft lifted the debris. What it created was a path of wind. And riding that wind was not Belnoa… nor Lac.
Tak! Someone leapt from the debris. Trusting the rising wind, they soared high into the air. She passed by Belnoa and Lac, trailing ash behind her.
“Thank you.”
With a brief word, Raniel soared high above, jumping higher than Gletus. Gazing down at Gletus from midair, the traitor looked up, smiling and reaching out toward Raniel.
And then, Raniel.
Reached not for Gletus, but for what lay behind her. As if trying to grab something. What could it possibly be?
“Shoot. Chloe.”
Raniel shouted.
The moment she called out, two massive circuits unfurled and then vanished from afar. From those momentary circuits came two spells. One invoked by Chloe, the other by Resti.
Supreme spell, Flare.
Supreme spell, Ignis.
One was a finely compressed flame, the other a white-blue spear condensed to its limits. Spells with opposing properties, incompatible with one another. Yet, as the two spells rose together, Chloe clasped her hands tightly.
Star’s trait, Fusion.
The two spells fused together.
The heat ray wrapped around the white-blue spear. Chloe shot forth the spear that combined the two spells, slicing diagonally across the battlefield. As the spear shot into the sky, Raniel yelled toward it.
Spell-Capture.
Kak! Raniel seized the white-blue spear.
The moment she held it, her palm burned. Yet, she wouldn’t release the spear. Raniel thrust her left hand forward while pulling her right hand back behind her.
Accel.
The spear shook violently.
Orders layered atop orders.
Accel, accel, accel, accel, accel…
The compounded spells caused the spear to continually tremble. When the compounding reached its limit, Gletus fired muck toward Raniel just as it reached her face. As she expelled the breath she had been holding, she swung her arms.
Throwing Spear.
The moment the spear left her hand, the muck that had nearly reached her burst apart. Everything was burned away. What emerged in the space between the disintegrating muck was a clear line.
The moment the spear left her hand, it arrived at its target.
In the slowed perception of time, Raniel beheld.
The divine barrier surrounding Gletus, the Veil of Rejection shattered. The clawed hands of muck wrapping around her burned away completely. The spear pierced through Gletus’s hand.
And then…
Whoosh!
The white-blue spear shone brightly, erupting in a flash. The two supreme spells contained within ignited, flooding the world in radiant light.
Boom…!
With a roar that resembled thunder, or perhaps a colossal explosion, the light engulfed Gletus. In that world turned white, Raniel swung her arms.
Chaarrrk.
What unfurled into the light was a chain.
The chain bound something. Pulling on the chain, Raniel leaped into the riptide of light and heat.
3.
The light scorched her retina.
As the lightning set free and flames burned her body, Gletus chuckled. Rebirth and burning intertwined, her hazy sight revealed the chains reaching toward her. The chains were wrapped around her arm.
Coming. The Heir of the Covenant.
Together with the taut chains, the Heir leaped into the light. As she gazed at the incoming human figure, Gletus stretched out her hand. Once again aiming to pierce through.
As her fingers brushed against the burning light, she drew a line as she was caught between pain.
Pweeee!
From somewhere, an arrow struck, piercing through Gletus’s arm. Unable to resist the momentum of the arrow, her arm was violently flung back, creating a gap.
Whoosh!
Something sprang forth through the light and heat.
Emerging was a claw, covered in wounds.
The claw snapped around Gletus’s neck. Following that, an utterly injured Raniel forced her way through the light. As she burned and bled, she finally reached Gletus.
Chaarrrk, the chain stretched, wrapping around both Gletus’s neck and Raniel’s hand, as if vowing never to let go.
“Just because you caught me…”
Gletus smiled, extending her hand.
She grasped Raniel’s arm that clutched her neck. The muck wrapping around Gletus’s fingers turned into stakes, aiming to impale Raniel.
“Do you think…”
Zzzt.
Something surged up from Raniel’s body.
What spurted forth was crimson lightning. The moment the lightning struck, the muck that touched Raniel’s skin evaporated. For the first time, Gletus’s eyes widened in surprise.
“…”
Raniel silently lifted her head.
Her eyes wide open, bloodshot pupils, irises expanded to their limits. In that fleeting moment, Gletus was overwhelmed. The instant she got caught in that sinister gaze.
Puff, one of Raniel’s eyes exploded.
Several fingers that had grasped Gletus crumbled away. However, the chains remained bound tightly, so Raniel didn’t let Gletus go.
Without losing grip.
With her damaged eye closed, Raniel smiled.
“Your arm is still attached.”
That was enough. Murmuring that, Raniel stomped down with her foot. She swung her arm. What unfolded before Gletus was something her eyes couldn’t comprehend.
Zzzzt, szzzzzz…
An untraceable noise.
The unidentified crimson lightning. In an instant, dozens of flashes trapped within her body. A severed arm. The black muck spewing forth. The jarring shock shaking her whole body. By the time Gletus grasped the situation, she was no longer standing on the staircase leading to the sky.
KAWHAAA!
With a tremendous roar, she crashed to the ground.
The staircase she had stepped on to ascend was utterly shattered. Gletus barely opened her eyes to see. Standing there was Raniel, wrapped in crimson lightning.
With a long breath, she released it. As the blood dripped from her body, she murmured.
Accel.
And, Accel.
Once more, Gletus’s vision was reversed.
