Volu 7, Chapter 5 - Despair That Crawls Out of the Darkness, Part 3
“Did you get any satisfaction from exposing people’s emotions?”
“I don’t know, but I think I know a little bit more about you than I expected.”
“Now that you understand, what do you want? You and I are incompatible.”
“Maybe you’re right…”
Liz replied regretfully.
“Then let’s kill each other, shall we?”
The corner of Luca’s mouth lifted to the point where her lips parted, and the mucous mbrane extending into her mouth was cut off by the wind.
“Just like Eagle ― give your head!”
Luca kicked at the ground and flew through the sky.
The hamr fell from the sky, emitting a sharp sound.
As Liz jumped to the side to avoid it, the ground caved in fiercely, sending up a cloud of dust.
Luca, who had penetrated the dust cloud, imdiately gave chase.
“Hate, hate hate, hate hate hate!”
“Guh!”
Although she laid down the red blade to catch the hamr, Liz could not kill the impact and was slamd into the ground.
“Gah!?”
“I need to rip off that beautiful skin and give it to Eagle!”
She swung the hamr down with a force that would not leave a speck of dust, regardless of her complexion.
Liz punched the ground, sending up a cloud of dust.
Deprived of her vision, Luca’s weapon deviated its trajectory and crashed into the ground.
“Tsk!”
Clicking her tongue, she swung the hamr down again, but there was no sign of Liz at that spot.
“I can’t afford to lose here.”
Liz, who was behind Luca, wielded the “Fla Emperor.”
Luca turned her body sideways to avoid Liz’s attack and swung her right leg up to counterattack. She put all her strength into her foot, stepped through the ground, and threw herself back with vigor.
The sole of Luca’s foot, roaring with air, went past Liz’s nose, but out of the corner of her eye ― from the right side ― she saw a giant hamr flying at her.
“Ha!”
Liz gritted her teeth and twisted her body to intercept it with her “Fla Emperor” at full force without adjusting her stance.
A clash ― the red blade and the hamr bounced off each other without any struggle.
Both of them quickly adjust their stance to reap the life out of the other and collide again.
One, two, and three… slash at each other as they hit each other with all their might.
Sotis they went for the legs, sotis for the fists if they missed, and sotis for the abdon with a frontal kick.
Liz attacked with all the strength she had.
However, Luca saw through all her attacks and dodged them with quick movents, and then she launched a constant counterattack.
It was an exchange of irregular attacks and varying quick attacks.
The air roared, the wind swirled and pulled in, and the sharp blades attacked both sides.
Cheeks slashed, cuts heated up and forgetting even the aching pain, the two of them put all their strength into each other’s fight. They fought with all their might until their physical strength was exhausted, until their energy was depleted, until one of their souls shattered.
But finally, the ti arrived when the balance was broken.
“Persistent, persistent―…!”
As if out of breath, Luca opened her mouth to the sky and took in so oxygen.
Liz decided to take advantage of the opportunity and quickly flashed her sword.
But…
“…An invitation.”
Luca’s snickering voice said.
“I know.”
Liz replied in a sarcastic tone.
She intercepted the blows with a slash and swung her right hand up to scoop up the “Fla Emperor” from the lower position. When the hamr swung down from above her head, she shifted her body half a step to the side to avoid it.
The reaction caused the trajectory of the red sword to shift as well, and it ended up only making the wind roar.
There was no room for pessimism. When she saw that the hamr was still buried in the ground beneath her feet, she shouted, not wanting to miss this opportunity.
“Next!”
She let out a breath of air and took a step forward.
But…
“It’s too late.”
“Eh ― buh?”
There was no sign of anything. There was no premonition of any kind of discomfort. And yet, the trendous shock that pierced through the five organs of the body, the sound of bones cracking all over the body reverberated within the body.
She put all her strength into her legs to avoid collapsing, but a large amount of fresh blood spurted out of her bitten mouth.
Dripping speckled blood on the ground, Liz fell to one knee, holding her right side.
“Wha… what is that?”
When she looked up with a shocked expression, she saw Luca above her, looking down at her with vacant eyes.
“Sorry. Didn’t I tell you that…?”
Stroking the handle of the giant hamr affectionately, Luca said without a hint of malice, despite her words.
“I’m the holder of one of the World’s Five Greatest Treasured Swords ― the holder of Five Destructive Holy Principle Swords, the Vajra Mallet.”
Liz groaned and stood up, although she had never thought of Luca as an ordinary person.
“Kuh…”
Still, Liz was convinced that she was better than Luca in terms of ability.
That said, there was no such thing as conceit, no such thing as pity, no such thing as carelessness.
“……Ah.”
She tried to ask Luca a question, but she couldn’t formulate the right words. All that flowed out of her mouth was fresh blood.
“Ah, I see. So you’re confused as to why you’re in this position?”
Luca took one look at the Vajra and then looked at the confused Liz.
“The Vajra’s blessing is called the Holy Offering. There are several conditions, but in exchange for offering your power, you can slow down the perception of your opponent.”
“……So, I was wrong?”
“Yes, by the ti you perceived it, the Vajra was no longer there.”
“I see… But why did you tell ?”
Liz hasn’t given up on this fight yet. It is a fatal disadvantage to have taught her the blessing, considering that she will be fighting for it.
“No, I’ve given you enough of my Pure Offerings in return. There’s no harm in letting you know.”
Then Luca put her hand on her chin and tilted her head in a funny way.
“But for so reason, it didn’t work on that guy, which puzzled . Well, it seems to have worked on you, though.”
Liz’s body trembled. She knew what the words ant.
When she saw her denial reaction, Luca let out an inarticulate joy and fell into oblivion.
“Do you want to hear it? The young man’s na…”
Do not listen. She knew it would be a bad idea. Still, her body would not accept rejection. Her brain cut off the signal for her to answer.
“Do you want to hear the story of a man who hung his head on the ground in disgrace and died with his head chopped off?”
Like a manipulative con artist, Luca enjoyed Liz’s reaction with her disingenuous tone of voice. She observed Liz’s progress as she struggled, struggled with her feet, grief, and broke down in despair at the world. Perhaps that’s why Luca revealed her blessings to Liz.
“……Who?”
She didn’t want to know, and she didn’t want to believe her, but her emotions got the better of her, and she asked.
Forgetting that she was even on the battlefield, she just wished she could hear the na.
“Hiro Schwartz von Grantz, of course.”
“Oh―…”
There was no sense of reality when she heard it. Her vision beca hazy as she asked herself why she was asking.
A bitter feeling overflowed from the depths of her heart.
She felt a dull feeling spreading in her chest.
It ate up all the hope of living, and the despair of dying would not stop.
When a single tear flowed from Liz’s cheek…
“It’s too early to break.”
“Gah!?”
A mont of slackness. Luca took advantage of the opportunity to attack, and Liz’s body crashed into the ground.
Luca swung her heels down on the choking Liz. She was struck in the abdon, and her body bent over and coughed up blood.
Even so, her heart was more painful than the physical pain.
“Ugh… ah―!”
“I’ll send you to the sa place. You won’t be lonely then, will you?”
“Agh!”
Liz’s body was blown away by a kick to the side.
Luca caught up with her with trendous speed and swung her giant hamr down, gliding on the ground with imnse force.
“Goodbye, you sweet princess,won’t you like to know a little bit of pain?”
She saw the Vajra that was about to smash her body in her hazy vision.
The approaching hamr seed awfully slow.
In her mind, various events repeated like a running lantern. Many thoughts mixed together, and emotions that could not be settled into one ran rampant.
In a landscape that repeated over and over again, in a heart that kept breaking over and over again.
――Liz “saw.”
She pursued him again and again, yearned for him again and again, and tried to cling to him again and again.
――The young man’s back.
“I’m not yet… giving up.”
She had cried enough.
She had fretted enough.
She had regretted enough.
She had already made enough excuses.
Then ― there was no need to repeat it.
“Yeah…… that’s enough.”
A clear view was etched in her mind, and Liz felt her senses return.
In the midst of this, she saw the hamr approaching in front of her.
She instantly adjusted her stance in the air, put her feet on the ground, and released her fist.
A violent sound was heard. The sound that echoed across the battlefield was frightening as if she had struck steel.
Normally, anyone would have guessed that Liz’s fist had shattered. But Liz was still in the punching position, and Luca was being pulled backward by the giant hamr that had been flung wide.
“Wha!?”
Luca’s face was tinged with astonishnt as she bounced back against a re fist.
“……I promised to hit you.”
She was about to ask him for help again when he broke her half-hearted resolve. She had told him over and over again that it would not work.
But her heart was still spoiled, and she was about to give up on walking on her own feet again.
“Don’t underestimate !”
She said as if she was scolding herself and angrily slashed at Luca.
But Luca, who unleashed the hamr, anticipated the entire trajectory and struck first.
“Your side hurts, doesn’t it? Your attacks are lacking in finesse.”
“So, what’s the matter?”
The two sides went head-to-head in a fierce competition of sword fights.
“By the way, I am the one who killed the fourth prince Hiro. Do you hate ? Do you want to kill so badly?”
“Shut up!”
“Gaah!”
A strong fist pierced Luca’s right cheek as she was distracted by the red blade.
Even though she was hit so hard that the ground beneath her feet exploded, she did not fall down and stopped in a tilted posture. Her eyes were cloudy, but Liz stared straight back at her.
“I believe in him.”
The “Fla Emperor” roared at the fierce will in those unshakable eyes. The clear red flas flowed down into the world, emitting blue light.
When Liz stepped forward, flas erupted from beneath her feet and shot up toward the sky.
“I’ve decided not to stray anymore.”
The blue light scorches her body as if to give her wings.
“I’ve decided not to be misled anymore.”
Liz holds the Fla Emperor in her opposite hand and raises it to eye level.
The blue flas erupted when she stroked the red blade and enveloped the world.
“I’ll use all my strength.”
With that day’s vow to beco stronger, and with that day’s wish in mind…
That fire is a prison.
That fla is hell.
That blaze is purgatory.
“Bloom wildly… Fla Emperor.”
――New flowers blooming in profusion.
The Fla Emperor disappeared from Liz’s hand, and the world was enveloped in red and blue.
The change also appeared in her body.
A blue fla wrapped around Liz’s entire body, healing all her wounds in an instant.
“Let’s begin.”
A sweet voice ca out of Liz’s throat.
It was not as brave as it had been in the past. There was no fearlessness or brutality in her voice.
There is a clean, lustrous voice, and the last thing anyone wanted was to have their brain numbed by that beautiful voice.
“Ah… Wha… Eh?”
Luca was stunned, her mouth twitching as she looked down at her Vajra. And then a scene jumped into the edge of her vision.
“E-Eagle?”
The skull she had claid as her brother was engulfed in flas.
“Eagle!”
Luca jumped in dismay but couldn’t make it in ti.
Without a mont of hesitation, she plunged her hand into the flas, but the skull disappeared into ashes.
“A-aah, aah, aaaaaaaahhh!”
She desperately tried to gather them up, but her hands grasped the void, and her sorrowful voice never reached them.
The red lotus fla burned through everything. Luca slamd her fist into the ground as she looked up at the blackened sky.
“Why, why, why―… why!”
When she looked up, she began to sprint towards Liz with fierce hatred, as if possessed by a devil.
“Why do you people keep getting in my way!”
Liz waved her right hand without answering anything. The flas around her shielded her as if to protect her.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
With a roar like a beast, Luca repeated her trendous attack over and over again.
But it was pointless.
Everything was useless.
The flas that writhed like a living creature refused to leave Liz and blocked all of her attacks. Even so, Luca boldly continued her single-minded attack.
“What did I do! I only wished for happiness! How dare you treat like this! I just wanted to live happily with my brother! That’s all I wanted!”
Liz’s eyes twisted sadly as she looked at the hamr that had been caught in the flas.
“I don’t know… the answer to that question now.”
Liz held her hand over the hamr. With that simple movent, the blue fla enveloped the Vajra.
In the blink of an eye, the flas engulfed even the handle.
“Damn it!”
Unable to endure the intense heat of the scorching flas, Luca let go of the weapon with a grimace.
“But you’ll find out.”
The blue fla that wrapped around Liz began to expand. Eventually, it took shape and decorated the lion with a mixture of red and blue.
Its length exceeded that of a giant monster, and its tail hovered long in the air like a snake.
Drools of fla dripped from its sharp fangs onto the ground. The clawed flas that stepped on it gouged out the ground.
“Hah… what’s that…”
In the face of the overwhelming presence, Luca put both knees on the ground as if to give up.
“Why can’t… anyone help ?”
When Liz raised her hand to the blue sky, the lion roared and jumped on Luca.
Perhaps she was exhausted from her efforts, but she did not show any sign of fleeing as she stared at the attacking lion.
“I’m sorry… Eagle.”
Luca looked at the scene in amazent, and a single tear fell from her cloudy eyes as if she had caught a glimpse of sothing.
“Onee-chan couldn’t avenge you.”
The tears were swallowed up by the fire. The flas of the explosion spread all over the area.
The ground shook, and even the black smoke was wiped out as the fires of hell raged across the land, burning away all life.
Eventually, the flas weakened and disappeared, leaving behind a faint smolder.
Liz stared blankly at a point.
A woman ― Luca, who had suffered various hardships, was lying on the ground in front of her gaze.
Liz could not kill Luca.
“……”
She thought she was being naive. However, she couldn’t just kill her. But she had vowed not to hesitate.
She decided to follow her heart and go ahead with it, even if it ant making the wrong choice.
This was the first step, and Liz didn’t know what she could do to her. But now that she was alive, she had a responsibility to support her.
“First, let’s atone for your sins. Then… we can find a goal together.”
When she called out to the unconscious Luca…
“You’re going to choose that path, aren’t you?”
A clap sounded in the still isolated world.
In order to prevent outside enemies from entering, the “Fla Emperor” should have closed the area with a wall of fire.
As Liz turned her piercing gaze to the scene, she saw a man standing out of nowhere.
He wears a strange mask, a white robe, and a wicked black sword hanging from his waist.
“This is the path that not even the first emperor… not even the second emperor, not even any of the previous emperors had chosen.”
The man approaches, his voice trembling with so happiness.
“But this ti, I will respect that choice.”
The man stopped in front of Liz and shifted his gaze to Luca.
“So, give her over to―…”
The man’s words trailed off as he looked at Liz again.
Because――,
Liz had a smile on her face.
Reviews
All reviews (0)