Chapter 233: Arpentia (11)
Light.
It was a truly radiant and intense light.
I wondered if this was what it would feel like to face the sun directly before one’s eyes.
“…….”
It was a sight so astonishing that it was almost solemn.
Valen Zeisho, the very one who had created that spectacle, rely gazed blankly at the light he had fired.
“It is taxing.”
He simply muttered that one quiet remark.
It was a single sentence laden with many anings.
He was once again painfully realizing just how much weaker he had truly beco.
The light gradually began to fade.
The Three-Eyed Tribe’s giant—an enormous creature capable of single-handedly toppling a castle, which had charged at him as though it would crush him at any mont—had already been swallowed by the light and evaporated without leaving even a trace.
The surrounding scenery slowly began to regain its original colors.
The beam of light had burst forth as though it would devour everything, yet what it had actually consud was only the giant of the Three-Eyed Tribe.
Astonishingly, not only the surrounding debris but even the ground remained completely intact, unchanged in the slightest.
It was a technique that could be called his ultimate art—one that selected only what he intended to attack and swallowed that alone.
“…….”
Valen Zeisho slowly lowered his bow.
Not a single being had ever survived with their body intact after being swallowed by that light.
Had not even one of the Eight Demon Lords he once faced managed to escape with his life only after sacrificing half his body?
‘Where are you.’
And yet, contrary to the words he had spoken earlier, Valen Zeisho was convinced that Arpentia had blocked this attack.
Not rely blocked it, but blocked it perfectly.
Because she had always done so.
She had always surpassed the expectations of himself and the other mbers of the Wolpen Knights and astonished them all.
Thus, if it was her, he believed she would surely have prepared so way to block or dismantle even his ultimate art.
“Ugh….”
Arpentia’s voice ca from the other side.
It was a faint groan, but not the voice of soone gravely injured.
Just as he had expected.
Before long, the light that had seed capable of devouring everything completely faded, and Arpentia’s figure was slowly revealed.
As he had anticipated, she was unhard.
“What.”
Valen Zeisho muttered, a rare hint of bewildernt in his voice.
Arpentia being unhard was indeed as he had expected.
Yet at the sa ti, the scene unfolding before him lay far beyond his expectations.
“……Talia.”
Standing before him was Talia Poas.
No—she was, and yet she was not.
It was a fi—
“…….”
Valen Zeisho gave a small shake of his head.
If it were anyone else, perhaps. But he did not wish to utter such words about his own comrade.
“……Arpentia, so this is what you ant.”
Valen Zeisho murmured, sounding both hollow and astonished.
What stood before his eyes.
No—was it truly right to call it a ‘thing’?
In any case, Talia Poas stood there before him.
There was no other way to describe it.
She looked as though she might begin breathing at any mont.
Retaining the youth and beauty of her pri, she stood like a statue, motionless, gazing at him.
“…….”
And yet….
Or perhaps, inevitably, Valen Zeisho could not sense even the slightest trace of life from her.
She appeared utterly hollow, like a ticulously crafted doll.
Even so, he felt his eyes sting without realizing it.
“It is exactly as you were in my mories.”
Valen Zeisho muttered as though exhaling a storm of tangled emotions.
And he had no choice but to coldly judge that the tide of battle had reversed.
The scales that had been tilted toward him had now tipped toward Arpentia.
“…….”
Arpentia.
No matter what thod she employed, he had believed that alone, she could never defeat him.
That was not arrogance or conceit.
It was simply an utterly objective fact.
No matter how sick and aged an elephant might be, it would never lose to a single ant.
…No, in truth, even if she had fought anyone among the Wolpen Knights, the result would surely have been the sa.
From the very beginning, the reason she had belonged to the order had not been her martial strength.
It had been her exceptional wisdom, her vast knowledge, and her unparalleled magical talent.
Even in terms of pure physical prowess alone, Anastasia Mayblin—the Saintess who had been protected by everyone at the rear—had been a step above her.
He had thought that even if a little additional strength were added, nothing would change.
Among the ‘little additional strength’ Valen Zeisho had envisioned were the aged Dragon who had lost its child, the Man without a Head (Male), and the Dead with Iron Needles Embedded in Their Chests.
‘But….’
But Talia Poas.
If she were here, the story changed entirely.
If he and she were to fight, who would win?
He honestly did not know.
Perhaps the result would be that they would beco each other’s final companions on the road to death.
But even that assud he was in his pri, in perfect condition.
If his current, thoroughly deteriorated self were to face Talia, who appeared close to her pri, then without even needing to see more, the one who would fall would be himself.
‘But….’
Naturally, she would not be in a perfect state.
Valen Zeisho thought quietly.
If she were, Arpentia would have revealed her long ago.
No—everything would have ended before it had even begun.
The power possessed by the woman nad Talia Poas was to that extent.
‘Then.’
The decisive factor would be just how complete the Wolpen Knights that Arpentia had constructed were—and how many more she could summon.
But at the very least, it was certain that they were capable of producing enough force to block his ultimate art unhard.
‘What should I do now.’
Valen Zeisho steadied his breathing and, without letting his opponent notice, subtly drew his arm behind his back.
The technique he had just unleashed had placed considerable strain upon his body.
‘……Hm?’
Then suddenly, his eyes t Talia.
No, the one bearing Talia’s appearance.
“……?”
Surely it was nothing more than a doll, incapable of possessing any human heart or emotion whatsoever.
And yet, Valen Zeisho instinctively felt that sothing was strange.
“…….”
In that instant, Talia’s gaze fixed precisely upon him.
No—more accurately, it was directed toward his shoulder… toward the very spot where the Brand should have been engraved.
The Brand.
He had long since handed it over to soone else.
And the Talia standing opposite him appeared to have imdiately noticed that fact.
“…….”
Her eyes curved ever so slightly, softening as though in relief.
Then she moved her lips as if telling him to be quiet.
Shh.
Imdiately afterward, Talia’s eyes lost their light, as if nothing had happened.
Like the Dead with Iron Needles Embedded in Their Chests, she returned to the sa manner of being—rely imitating a living human.
She simply stood there in silence, waiting quietly for her master’s command.
‘Talia.’
Valen Zeisho whispered her na inwardly.
‘Could it be that you….’
Had she anticipated that such a situation would co?
And so….
After finishing his thoughts, Valen Zeisho gave a quiet nod.
At the realization that he was not alone, he felt strength return to the hand gripping his bow.
‘Yes.’
Then he would simply do what he could.
There was only one thing he had to do now.
“So it truly was to the extent that you could speak with such confidence.”
A brief silence passed.
At last, at Valen Zeisho’s words, Arpentia responded in a tone that sohow sounded like an excuse.
“……It is not yet complete. Compared to the real Lady Talia, it does not even reach her toes.”
As she said that, Arpentia carefully stepped out from behind Talia’s back.
Her face was deeply distorted, but it was not from pain.
It was from guilt and reverence—for daring to use Talia Poas as a shield.
Along with that was no small asure of sha and embarrassnt for having revealed her incomplete form to the world… and before Valen Zeisho, no less.
“I see. Even so, it is certainly remarkable.”
Arpentia murmured quietly.
It was not flattery.
He was sincerely impressed.
“It is exactly as I rembered. Talia, yes. Talia… she certainly looked like that.”
As he spoke, he realized sothing.
That was Talia’s appearance from when she had belonged to the Wolpen Knights.
He muttered softly.
“You could not rember my face, which had not changed at all, yet you rember so clearly how we were back then.”
“……Because that ti was everything to .”
Arpentia whispered quietly.
“My golden age, our legends and songs. And… the sweet dream I will never forget.”
“Childhood inevitably cos to an end soday.”
Valen Zeisho replied in a whisper as well.
“After three hundred years, is it not ti to awaken from the dream?”
“…….”
Arpentia said nothing.
She rely raised her wrist high.
Then, with the dagger already in her hand, she slashed her own wrist without hesitation.
Crimson droplets flowed down her slender arm and soon began falling to the ground with soft, dull taps.
Bubble, bubble.
From the ground where her blood seeped in, foam gradually began to form.
The bubbles steadily grew in size, and in an instant beca large enough to swallow a person whole.
Within that mass of foam, soone’s figure was faintly visible.
‘I have lost.’
Valen Zeisho muttered quietly to himself.
Why had he not stopped her action just now?
As he asked himself that question, he imdiately realized the answer.
‘I see.’
Talia Poas.
It seed he had unconsciously wished to see the faces of his other comrades as well.
“……I dare to ask.”
anwhile, clutching her wounded wrist carefully, Arpentia spoke in a respectful voice.
“Please help us.”
Before Valen Zeisho’s eyes—
On either side of Talia stood two n he could never forget.
Siren Everglenn.
Rikerka Valentin.
Comrades who had crossed three hundred years, appearing exactly as they had been in those days. At that sight, Valen Zeisho let out a deep sigh without realizing it.
“Was this how those Eight Demon Lords felt.”
He adjusted his grip on his bow as he made a joke that not a single one of them smiled at.
It was ti for him to do what he had to do.
Soon, the Founders of the Three Families charged toward the Fairy King.
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