Accelerate.
The platinum starlight wrapped around Raniel’s body.
The starlight that Kyle Toven had handed over pushed Raniel, who had already reached her limits, forward a bit more. With the starlight in her grasp, Raniel whispered softly.
“Accelerate.”
Once again, the spell nestled into her body, surpassing her limits. At the moment the spell was cast, crack, a sound echoed as Raniel’s vision cracked. With only one eye remaining, her narrowed sight became even more constricted.
But it didn’t matter.
Through the blurry and narrowed vision, Raniel saw the apostate. She felt the touch of the chain that bound her hand to the apostate’s neck. It didn’t matter if she couldn’t see properly. As long as she didn’t let go, that was the only issue.
“W-what are you…?”
For the first time, the apostate showed a hint of surprise.
She couldn’t comprehend the crimson lightning that Raniel was imbued with. Open the heavens? Reverse the heavens? No, that was fundamentally different from what she had intended.
…The apostate, Gleria Bel Armias, wished to overturn the divine will. To fix and amend the existing providence.
‘But…’
That crimson lightning was something else.
Not for the purpose of amendment. Rather, it was…
Crack.
Raniel gripped the apostate’s neck a bit harder. The few remaining fingers sank deeply into the apostate’s throat. Cough! The apostate expelled the breath that was trapped. Crack, as Raniel buried her feet deeper.
■■■■. ■■■■, ■■■■■■■■.
In an instant, Raniel’s body shook.
It felt as if shadows were forming, or as if the world was tearing apart around her. The distorted form of Raniel registered as a fleeting moment in the apostate’s retina.
Immediately afterward, the apostate’s vision reversed.
The view continued to shake. It looked up at the sky, then down at the ground, saw the bouncing rocks, and was obstructed by the crimson lightning… even in that minuscule fragment of a second, the sight kept reversing.
She could not see. Every scene was not continuous. Because it wasn’t continuous, it simply could not connect.
Chiiiiiing!
Amidst the sounds of something shattering, being crushed, and splitting apart, the clear sound that rang was that of a liquid evaporating. The apostate felt it. The shadow she harbored in her heart was rapidly diminishing.
Splatter! Blood splattered onto the apostate’s face.
It wasn’t her own blood. It was the blood that Raniel had vomited. Feeling the heat of the bubbling blood, the apostate instinctively realized: This is a battle of attrition.
‘Will you collapse first… or will I run out of my shadow first?’
The apostate slowly closed her eyes before opening them. When she opened her eyes, a black radiance flooded around her.
2.
Wrapped in lightning, Raniel dashed forth.
Continuously battering the apostate’s body, pouring out every spell she could wield, Raniel accelerated over and over.
Thud, Thud, Thud, Thud.
Giant craters formed where she passed. The black claws rising up to protect the apostate couldn’t steal even a single second from Raniel.
‘I’ll push her like this.’
Raniel saw the apostate through her fractured vision.
The claws protecting her heart were disappearing quickly. There wasn’t much time left. Neither for those claws nor for the time remaining to herself.
‘It would be nice to end it right here, but…’
The opponent wouldn’t fall so easily.
Flash.
Around the apostate, black light particles surged forth. Realizing the shadow wouldn’t work, she began to use divine art. Raniel immediately slammed the apostate’s head into the ground and reached with her unbound hand.
Vwaaaaaaah!
What erupted from around the apostate was immense divine power. As it took form, Raniel’s spell was faster. The unanticipated downward blow pierced the divine power, stabbing the apostate’s tongue.
The divine art was completed through prayers, the crossing of fingers to form the holy symbol, and chants recited aloud. One of the apostate’s arms was torn off, and her fingers were broken. How could the divine art be completed now that her tongue was pierced?
Divine Art, Condemnation.
However, that only applied to priests bound by common sense. You couldn’t expect the same strategy against a disaster that lay outside the realm of logic. The completed divine art shone violently.
The black light particles formed into blades.
Dozens, hundreds of blades were shot at Raniel. Most of the blades shattered against the body of Raniel wrapped in lightning, but some pierced into her side. The black light particles were sucked into the embedded blades.
Divine Art, Flames of Purification.
Divine Art, Judgment.
The blades inflated to an unbearable degree and then exploded. The fierce flames and the black light beam pierced a hole in Raniel’s side. Yet, Raniel did not stop. By now, her senses had dulled. She felt no pain.
BOOM!
As Raniel slammed the apostate’s head into the ground, she stomped her foot down on her face. With her bare hand, she clenched her own side. Forcing the insides that flowed out from the hole back in while searing the skin to close it, crimson blood spurted from her mouth. Her vision became slightly blurrier.
Yet, she still held on.
She pulled on the hand gripping the apostate’s neck. The apostate’s body, previously slammed to the ground, rose along with the rubble. The gazes of the apostate and Raniel crossed. Each eagerly reflecting the other’s figure.
The murky water now visible on the ground.
The once vibrant crimson lightning weakened.
Both understood the fact that they were at their limits. The light particles surrounding the apostate sparkled brilliantly. Though she could continue her assault by holding the apostate’s neck… it also presented the flaw of making it impossible to evade.
Chiiiiiing!
The erupting light particles burned Raniel’s body. Enduring the heat with the help of the lightning, Raniel clenched her fist. Still gripping the apostate’s neck, she aimed to deliver the final blow.
Ashes to Ashes.
Ashen particles did not gather.
What gathered was the crimson lightning wrapping around her body. In a flash, all the lightning surged out from her form. The escaping lightning gathered in the fist that Raniel had clenched.
Thwack!
Enduring the flames, Raniel pulled back her hand gripping the apostate’s neck. As she pulled it back, her fist aimed to plunge into the apostate’s heart.
BAM!
The apostate’s heat, Raniel’s lightning, and the relentless waves of attacking force could no longer be contained by the chains. The shattered chains revealed three emaciated fingers remaining. Those fingers began to melt under the heat, causing Raniel to lose her grip on the apostate.
The apostate’s body tilted.
Raniel’s fist was now cutting through the air.
Swoosh!
The sound of wind slicing past brushed her ears.
Even in her blurred vision, she saw a beam of light traversing the battlefield. An arrow, released with the light, pierced through the back of the apostate that Raniel had failed to grasp.
…Up until now, Raniel had been engaged in a fight outside of consciousness, splintering time into tiny pieces, but now that she had halted to prepare the final blow, she had missed her moment. With the chains severed, she had lost the time allocated to her.
The time she had missed.
A fleeting moment, barely a second left.
To grasp that second, Remia shot an arrow. The arrow that struck seized the second that Raniel had missed.
Flash!
The moonlight released from the embedded arrow shoved the apostate’s body forward. Where she was pushed towards lay Raniel’s fist. Once again, the apostate’s heart was positioned for Raniel’s punch. Slowly, Raniel’s fist began to move.
Crack.
The fist drawn with the lightning collided with the apostate’s heart. It struck her heart fiercely. The surging lightning consumed the murky shadow left in the apostate’s heart. The electric spark leaped in all directions, propelling the apostate’s body backward.
“Ah, ah…”
Despite being gnawed at by the lightning, the apostate reached out to try to draw a holy symbol. She sought to resist until the very end…
Slash!
A crude sword that burst forth from beside Raniel severed the apostate’s arm. Grasping the sword of the Sword Demon, Draka, was Lac, who had finally reached Raniel after moving alongside her since she began to accelerate, exhaling sharply as he formed the sword line.
The ensuing sword line transformed into sharp spikes.
Following the sword line, Lac thrust his sword.
The thrusting blade embedded right next to Raniel’s fist. The blade had pierced the apostate’s heart at an angle. The crimson lightning burst forth, scattering as Lac was forced out of the battlefield by the explosive impact.
And Raniel…
With a smile, turned her thrusting fist slightly aside. The leaping lightning blinked intensely. What erupted was a flood of searing light. Drawing forth the light, Raniel enunciated the name of the lightning she had created.
Though her voice was drowned out by the explosion of the bright flash and deafening sound… the apostate surely heard that voice.
Not the open heavens, nor the reverse heavens, but the answer of a third kind. Upon hearing that answer, the apostate burst into laughter that seemed out of place for the situation. Immediately after, a massive torrent of light engulfed the apostate. It burned everything she had harbored.
3.
The light burned everything away.
Over the course of the past few centuries, everything she had held onto, everything that had festered within her, was completely consumed by the flames. Her body felt lighter. The whisper of the apostate’s voice in her ear faded and eventually disappeared.
It disappeared, it disappeared, it vanished.
As everything vanished, what remained was no longer the apostate. What remained was the Saint, Gleria Bel Armias. In the snowy dimness of her vision, Gleria smiled bitterly.
…How cruel, truly.
*
As the swirling light slowly settled.
With light and mana particles drifting like snowflakes across the desolate land, I let out a long breath. My whole body ached. With the pain finally catching up to me, I felt as if I would collapse at any moment. But… I couldn’t afford to fall yet.
There was still something left to do.
I staggered a step forward.
There lay the disaster I so longed to reach. The figure that had crumpled to the ground looked up at me and opened her mouth.
“…In the end, you’ve won.”
I gazed directly at her.
The hole in her heart. The shadow completely devoured by lightning. The formerly crimson eyes returned to a verdant hue. Watching the slowly dying disaster…
No.
Facing the Saint, Gleria Bel Armias, I slowly opened my mouth.
“I told you.”
I said.
“The people living in this era are not as weak as you think.”
“…You really trample over everything without leaving a thing behind.”
Snicker, she chuckled.
The absurdity of her last words as an apostate being denied made her smile as if it was amusing.
“Yes, it is your victory. My defeat.”
“A defeat for the apostate. A victory for you.”
“…I appreciate the words, but.”
She smiled bitterly.
“It isn’t that easy to separate them, is it?”
“…”
“It was devoured by the shadow—there was no choice. Overcome by madness, I was unable to resist. To make excuses and flee like that, even so, is rather pathetic. I have no intention of going that far.”
The saint exhaled deeply.
“I…”
“I know.”
I interrupted her.
“I understand what you are trying to say. Still, I will say this: it is your victory.”
“…Victory?”
“You, your kind left behind arrangements. I stand here because I received them. I stand here as the one who carries forth your contracts.”
The successor of the contract.
A junior standing straight here, carrying on the will.
“Even if you can’t distinguish between the apostate and yourself as the saint…”
Not the apostate, Gletus.
Even if you consider yourself to be the apostate, Gleria Bel Armias.
“Still, this is the victory of Gleria Bel Armias.”
I smiled.
“You were not wrong. In the gamble you placed against the Demon Lord that day, you did not lose.”
My existence proves your sacrifices. It testifies that the choices you made back then were correct.
“Because I stand here.”
Thus, I am both the successor of the contract…
“I am also the witness.”
As a witness, too.
Her gaze quivered at my words.
“And.”
With a firm grip…
I placed something in her hand. What I set down was what I had prepared for this day. After placing it down, I stepped back a pace.
“This is my tribute to you.”
The artifact placed in her hand glowed pure white.
“A tribute to the hero, Gleria Bel Armias.”
With a smile, I took a step back.
The light that burst forth from the artifact engulfed her.
