Chapter 98
Chapter 98
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 98
Chapter Title: EP.98 28-4. If One Lives, Then Love.
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As far as I knew, Head's phases totaled two. The first phase went something like this.
"...You're just a maggot, boy."
A pattern where he fired bullets. I dodged by using rain prayer to turn into water droplets.
"Red blood flows through it, hence Redwood."
A ferocious red killing intent clung to the blade of the sword he held. It sliced through the wind, splattering raindrops.
"Magnolia Swordsmanship, Style 2: Redwood."
"How does a boy like you know that technique...?!"
I succeeded in grazing Head's throat, targeting his vital point to kill him.
"No way... the White Magnolia's...!!"
"Only now do you remember?"
Bang, bang. Since he kept pulling the trigger at my face, I vanished again, putting distance between us.
"This can't be. I sealed you away in the endless monster forest, deep in the origin where ignorance keeps anyone from finding you!!"
Thin smoke rose from the red revolver that had fired the bullets, filling the air with the metallic scent of gunpowder and the fishy tang of blood.
"During Magic Hat's raid, I was drawn there like a magnet. It's your karma, Head."
"I wasn't wrong...!!"
The demon king glared at me with resentful eyes as he clutched his bleeding neck with one arm, stemming the flow.
"...Let's see if you can dodge this one too."
With his other arm, he pressed the gun barrel to his temple. This was a different pattern. Using his 'omniscience' as a medium to calculate the opponent's spatial coordinates,
'A sure-hit technique that never misses...!!'
Bang—.
"Too late, boy!"
The moment he pulled the trigger, a massive bullet appeared instantly at my side as I charged to stop him, kicking off the ground.
It was clearly aimed at himself, yet Head showed no sign of injury. A pattern that completely defied the laws of physics.
The bullet, which had been small moments ago, transformed into a gigantic butcher's cleaver over two meters long, spinning wildly to tear my body to shreds.
'Damn it, even rain prayer won't work.'
I tried turning into water droplets to evade pursuit, but it kept manifesting right beside me, as if it could see wherever I moved.
In the game, I'd tanked it relying on equipment defense to clear it. Was there no other way?
"Magnolia Swordsmanship, Style 4: Clear Stream!!"
I summoned a wave to absorb the impact with the rushing water. Even blocking with a shield wouldn't let me avoid it unscathed.
"Guh...!"
My clothes shredded, my body covered in wounds. It felt like colliding with a car spinning at high speed.
I hadn't fully mitigated the attack's force. Taking this multiple times would reduce me to rags. Was there really no breakthrough?
"Ho, absorbing the impact with water? It seems you've seen through all my techniques."
"Feeling entertained now...?"
"Indeed. It proves my omniscience was never wrong!"
Head sneered at me. Outwardly cool-headed, he was an utterly pathetic boss deep down.
"...The bleeding's stopped now, I suppose."
When Head removed his palm from the spot I'd wounded on his neck, no more blood flowed. He'd already healed?
"I'll slowly squeeze the life out of you."
Twisting his lips into a grin, he once again aimed the gun at his temple. I couldn't keep taking hits like this...
"...Huh? Why won't it fire?"
That was when it happened. Water-formed iron chains erupted like a fountain from beneath the old man's feet, wrapping tightly around his arms and legs.
"Dennis!! You damned bastard...!!"
They bound him downward, preventing him from firing. Anyone could tell this was the protagonist of Knight Heart.
'Dennis it is.'
It was Drunken Dennis's magic. His promise to help in a pinch was real after all.
I caught my breath. Using the Fallen Route glitch was too reckless, and I didn't even have Kainel's holy sword.
'Above all, I don't know the incantation for the fake holy sword's corruption.'
I needed the opposing incantation for the sword I held now, but I didn't meet even the basic conditions.
It probably required losing Pine in the first place. I'd already evacuated her.
"...As expected, 'I don't believe in love' won't trigger it."
The reason it activated last time might have been because, during Magic Hat's raid, I'd fully abandoned the 'Nameless Saintess.'
Honestly, anyone else might have fled on the spot. There was no reason to separate the space and isolate Magic Hat.
I hadn't even met the Saintess then. I might have desperately struggled just to survive a bit longer.
'Guess I really am a madman.'
In the end, since Pine wasn't kidnapped, she never became shrouded in lies, losing her identity and name.
The loss of a loved one. To save and protect others, I abandoned my personal desires.
"Life's full of twists, as they say."
So maybe the true conditions were met then. I let out a hollow chuckle.
"Remembrance, Flashback."
Thud—. Something heavy dropped from the sky with a boom. A jet-black sword shaped like a lever.
It resembled pulling out a sword stuck in a rock but lifting the whole rock instead since you couldn't budge it.
Truth be told, from the first time I saw this mind sword, I'd thought it might come in handy somewhere.
"Y-You bastard, what are you trying to do...?!"
"This sword? It also means 'reminiscence,' you know?"
I stood before Head, struggling to escape the chains, holding Remembrance. I thrust the blade's sharp tip into the demon king's heart,
"Wonder if you can withstand this. Even if it's fake, it's a holy sword."
and pulled the lever. Used on the ground, it changed the surrounding terrain like selecting a map.
"Gaaahhh!!"
But used on a person's body, it would twist their innards. This time, the surroundings fell eerily silent, almost oppressively still,
"G-Guh... You bastard, why do you have two holy swords...? A hero can only possess one...!"
"Who knows? I've been telling you from the start I'm no hero, Head."
Blood streamed from Head's eyes and mouth. The demon king writhed in agony. His accumulated sins ran deep.
"I... I'm... the Demon King of Omniscience. I couldn't have not known this...!"
"Don't you even know the price for your sins?"
He'd erased the Heavenly Demon from people's memories, schemed to kidnap the innocent Second Saintess Sharutineth, and now raided the academy to harm our Pine.
"You've killed too many people."
The Hero Cultists he'd brought were all vicious. Just now, the Apostle of Gluttony tried to attack defenseless students the moment his power failed.
The white-robed corpses scattered around proved it.
Some had threatened lives by pressing weapons to throats. No matter how noble the goal,
"The end doesn't justify the means, Head."
Without me, Dennis's absence might have led to casualties among the academy students.
"You think I wouldn't explain myself to those around...?!)
The base of the lever, inscribed with "Stage Select," was fully cocked. It must hurt like hell, yet the demon king wouldn't shut up.
"Fine. If you want death that badly, I'll oblige with my all!!"
The line signaling entry into phase 2.
The moment he shouted it, the bindings holding Head dissolved. Normally, you'd whittle his health next, prompting a pistol suicide attempt.
"...Guess I'll have to use the Life and Death Ledger."
My instincts told me it wouldn't play out so simply this time. The Life and Death Ledger—he was trying to tamper with my save file?
"Black Knight Licht."
His damage from before was fully healed. A chilling sensation made me dodge backward.
"He was betrayed by his party on the way to subjugate the Demon King, falling into a trap and dying."
What? That item wasn't supposed to exist.
I suddenly sensed a presence and turned. Head's Life and Death Ledger originally recorded lifespans and causes of death via omniscience.
'No such ability...!'
Red illusions resembling Kainel and Ariel appeared behind me, launching sword aura and magic from my rear. Right at my feet yawned an endless pit.
'A fall trap...'
I kicked off to escape, but failed. How was this possible? Because it's a prequel?
My body plummeted. I flailed, trying to shapeshift with rain prayer, but it fizzled.
"It's over. How does it feel to be betrayed as a hero?"
Head muttered to me as I fell. At the bottom loomed enormous spikes; impaling on those meant certain death.
'All wrong. Even summoning Remembrance doesn't work.'
I was moments from the razor-sharp spikes. Thrusting my sword into the wall to halt the fall failed too.
All that remained was the crunch of spikes piercing my body, blood gushing as I died in agony.
That was when it happened. Something transparent emerged from my back. Two pairs of glassy wings glimmering in reflected light.
'...Pine.'
Mardol—no, Pine Granasia—must have seen and judged the situation somehow. She cast glass magic on my back, barely sparing me injury.
Flapping wings of white silver. Using them for propulsion, my body soared upward. I wasn't even using Icarus's Decision, yet I flew.
"What a cheat character."
A twinge of envy hit me. If she hadn't become the Nameless Saintess, she'd always been this strong.
"Thanks, Pine."
Thinking back, Pine Granasia had always been the one saving my life whenever I was in dire straits.
Even as the Nameless Saintess, she'd comforted and saved me. Just before, she'd plunged into my trauma to rescue me from the fire.
It had nothing to do with her, yet how kind could she be?
Some might say I projected past crushes onto her, but she was always consistent. Even if a mere Black Knight like me distorted her image,
"A mirror shows things as they are."
Could her radiant light ever be obscured? Always gentle, warm, and kind.
"...Guess I really was oblivious."
Even when I mistook her for Lupus, or learned she was a girl, her essence never changed. She loved cute things and sweets,
"Pine was always Pine."
Besides, I'd resolved from the start not to turn her into the Nameless Saintess. It wasn't like some sudden stranger fell for her at first sight,
"'Someone from the future who loved you,' or whatever—that's not pure love."
It didn't have to connect to me. Even if she wasn't the saintess I remembered now.
Someday, I wanted to dispel all the shadows veiling her and see her smile brightly.
That was my simple wish. I'd only done things to lower her affection anyway.
"Pine Granasia now is lovable enough to make me fall for her all over again... Plenty of reason."
A strong, kind girl who never hesitated to help those in need around her.
"The complete opposite. Totally."
Unlike weak me, who feared approach, pushed away emotions, and fled in preemptive terror.
"...Thanks to you, I survived. Pine Granasia."
After escaping Head's trap unscathed, I raised a thumbs-up to the sky.
She might be watching from somewhere else, after all.