Frey’s movents were seamless.
Kartia’s steps were unwavering.
Frey didn’t look back at Kartia, who trailed one step behind.
Kartia never doubted Frey, who walked one step ahead.
They didn’t speak.
They didn’t exchange glances.
They simply carried out their roles with absolute trust in one another.
Within a world shrouded in darkness, Frey’s endlessly rampaging greatsword beca Kartia’s guiding light. At tis, it beca a shield. At tis, a stepping stone. At tis, a sword that carved the path forward.
Kartia walked the path laid before her without doubt. At the sa ti, she never let the light ahead flicker. She never looked away. She never focused on what needed to be cut. She only kept her eyes on Frey and advanced.
Until Kartia’s sword could reach.
Until Frey’s sword could reach.
Until perfect victory was achieved, they steadily built their foundation.
But it wasn’t easy.
Amid an assault they couldn’t evade or retreat from, they swung their swords more desperately than anyone else. Just like the starlight that lit up the night sky, their droplets of blood sparkled endlessly.
The sonic booms, loud enough to tear the heavens, were ferocious.
The resulting shockwaves stung my skin even from a distance.
A disaster that no human body should withstand,
The core abilities of every Master, excluding Aaron, honed solely to kill them.
And yet, the competitive fire on their faces never faded. Their smiles didn’t vanish. Their laughter didn’t cease. Their heat never cooled. They never tired. Their steps never faltered.
Their tranquil glow never dimd. Like stars that shine brighter in deeper darkness, they sparkled all the more radiantly in this world of despair.
And so, the harrowingly prolonged battle,
Was so beautiful, it made one forget to breathe.
In the midst of it, rustle,
the flowers covering Laila’s body began to rise.
Through the slowly retreating vines, bloodless Aura, wilted feathers, fading fla, and a lting coffin of ice ca into view.
After checking briefly on Rubia, who lay in the back, I ran to Laila.
She must’ve sensed
approaching, for her heavy eyelids slowly lifted.
The first thing Laila’s dazed gaze landed on was the sky.
The sky where Kartia and Frey battled.
A sky overflowing with their starlight, flowing like a chaotic galaxy.
Gradually, life returned to her once vacant, unfocused eyes. Her distant gaze sharpened.
Laila tried to rise, but the icy coffin encasing her body held her down.
Unable to move, she simply turned her head and looked at . Then slowly opened her mouth.
[…]
But no voice ca. Her face twisted in frustration as she tapped the ice coffin.
I nodded and reached out.
Before breaking the ice, I checked her condition.
Crack,
Crrrack,
She was doing much better than before. With that confird, I began to break the ice gently.
At last, freed from the coffin, Laila slowly sat up, tidying her ssy hair and clothes.
Yet her voice still wouldn’t co, her brow furrowed.
“Even transmission doesn’t work…?”
Laila nodded. Then snap,
she broke off a branch that had sprouted beside her and began writing in the dirt.
Scratch,
scratch,
[Are the priestess and my descendant safe?]
“…I’m not sure yet. Serr… she’s slowly stabilizing, but Rubia… she’s still the sa…”
Laila’s gaze shifted toward Serr and Rubia.
It lingered a little longer on Rubia.
[Once I recover a bit more strength, I’ll have to check on the priestess. For now, there’s nothing I can do.]
“I understand…”
[This is all my fault. I sincerely apologize.]
I shook my head.
With her weakened hand, Laila patted my shoulder, then turned to look at the sky.
The brutal battle still raged on.
The situation looked the sa, but it wasn’t.
The light they wielded was clearer than before. The darkness cast by the black sun had grown thinner.
Things had definitely improved.
What once seed hopeless had begun to tip in our favor.
That’s what I thought.
That’s what I believed.
Until I noticed Laila’s grave expression.
Watching the battle unfold, Laila frowned, sothing rarely seen, and staggered to her feet.
She nearly collapsed several tis, but roots rising from the earth supported her, letting her stand.
Then they began guiding her steps toward Rubia.
And scratch, one thin root that split off wrote words into the soft earth.
[Sothing’s wrong.]
I gripped my sword and rose to my feet.
[That bastard Alstein… I don’t sense the Naless One’s power from him.]
“…What?”
You don’t sense it?
When we first faced him, I’d felt a strange aura.
A presence so faint it couldn’t be captured by perception. A strength so incomprehensible it couldn’t be asured.
It was a force unlike anything I’d felt, not even from the Beasts of the End or from Sirin.
And yet that sa power still lingered clearly even now. So how could it not be the Naless One’s?
Staring at my confused expression, Laila slowly shook her head.
Then, on the ground, she etched another sentence.
[What you felt wasn’t the Naless One’s power.]
―――!
The searing heat of Alstein’s aura, like a burning sun, rushed in, heating the nape of my neck. The sword-force surrounding Frey’s greatsword sharpened further, growing in strength and form.
[That was Alstein’s own power, built up from a forgotten era.]
Starlight burst across the sky that had been nothing but darkness. Frey’s greatsword, collecting that light, beca a teor shower, drawing a radiant trail through the night.
[The power wielded by the Naless One is, ]
At last, the star’s trajectory reached Alstein’s body.
Shrrk.
A clear slicing sound rang out as Frey severed his arm. Kartia’s strike followed, her brilliance slicing across his body and drawing a vast horizon in the darkened sky.
[The sa one Lilith once carried, ]
Alstein, who had looked down on the earth from above, began to fall.
Above him, Frey’s greatsword slamd down with brutal force.
A beat later, Kartia landed on the ground. She stomped hard and swung her greatsword with all her might. The brilliance that erupted lit the world and swept away the darkness.
Alstein, mouth stretched in a beastly shriek, took Frey’s greatsword straight to his jaw. The sword crushed his tongue and shattered his jawbone, tearing through his chin.
Crack!
Starting from the greatsword, Alstein’s jaw detached and fell.
Where his chin had been, only a hollow cavity remained.
It wasn’t a human throat. Nor was it the gullet of a beast.
Just an empty void, gaping, unnatural.
It didn’t seem ant for speech, but rely for producing sound.
[It’s divine power.]
Crunch!
Frey’s sword, which had swung nonstop, halted. Kartia’s blade also ca to a stop.
Both their swords stopped at the sa place, where Alstein’s heart should have been.
At last, Kartia’s sword pierced Alstein’s heart.
But she didn’t smile.
With furrowed brows, she glared down at the gasping Alstein.
A mont later,
Shlick!
Accompanied by a squelch of torn flesh, Kartia drew her sword out.
[You fucking bastard.]
Kartia ground her teeth viciously.
Even with his jaw gone and limbs severed, Alstein’s body, dragging itself along the ground, had no heart inside.
Seeing this, Frey bit her lip and coated her sword with a fresh layer of sword-force.
Without letting her guard down, instead radiating sharper killing intent than before, she surveyed the surroundings.
In this atmosphere, tense as if a blade hovered before the heart,
Slide.
Rubia’s body, lying peacefully within her coffin of ice, stirred.
She was still in poor condition.
The wounds dealt by Alstein had not healed. Her breath and pulse had grown even fainter.
I quickly turned and rushed to her.
I carefully shattered the icy coffin around her and gently took her weakly trembling hand.
It was cold. There was no warmth.
It wasn’t soft, it was rough.
Her bones were broken and swollen, and all her nails had been ripped out.
And yet, that hand,
Slowly closed around mine.
It was gentle.
Soft and careful.
Unlike usual.
As if it belonged to soone else.
The mont I felt that.
The mont I realized this wasn’t Rubia,
I gripped the cold hand wrapped around mine with force.
At the sa ti,
That pale, slender hand.
The hand that used to stroke my head.
The hand that had always caressed my face.
The hand that lovingly entwined fingers with mine.
The hand of the person I loved,
CRACK!
Drove through my chest.
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