Chapter 787: Reflection and More Reflection
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 787: Reflection and More Reflection
Encrid inwardly agreed with the Balrog's words as he sank into himself to draw out his Will. Whether he liked it or not, it was only natural to keep doing what needed to be done.
He held fast to the surging Will, anchoring it so it wouldn't scatter of its own accord.
Control.
First came the control—the pause. Next came the explosion.
He blended the Point Explosion shown by the head of House Zaun with his own Explosion of Lines. Digesting the two Will Control Methods in his own way, he unleashed them.
He poured everything into the strike, fueled by the resolve to die after a single blow. A knight's Will grew stronger through such vows and constraints.
Casting aside the need for further mental preparation, Encrid charged. His resolve had already been forged on the way here.
The moment his frozen body moved, he entered a world without sound. It was a span of time where the surrounding air pressed down on him like thick mud. The Balrog entered that same timeframe with ease; Encrid had expected nothing less.
However, the beast had not yet folded its wings. Thanks to that, Encrid was just a fraction faster.
The position of his feet, the hand gripping his sword—everything became one as he slashed. The movement was a simple Diagonal Slash, but it landed before the Balrog's sword, Urt, could reach him, and before the fire snake, Salamander, could pounce.
The timing was perfect. A slash that blended Flash and Vortex scraped against one of the Balrog's crystals.
Boom! Screeech! Thud! Clang!
Sound erupted a beat too late as Encrid's body was flung backward. In the midst of their high-speed exchange, the Balrog sent out another telepathic wave.
-Endure.
Blown back, Encrid rolled once across the ground before catching his balance and skidding to a halt. In the process, Dawn Forge, which he had plunged into the earth to slow himself, dragged with a harsh screech, leaving a long scar in the soil.
“Urgh!”
The moment he stopped, he coughed up blood. His internal organs had been shredded from taking a direct kick to the stomach during that brief clash.
The moment his Diagonal Slash had struck home, the Balrog hadn't been idle. Instead of fighting the resistance of his own wings and the wind to swing his sword, the beast had used his leg. His right foot had slammed into Encrid's abdomen as fast as any sword strike.
His entire body is a weapon.
It was a fact he already knew, but this time was different. Both the power and the speed behind the kick were on another level.
Crimson blood smeared his chin and dripped onto the ground. Down on one knee, Encrid used Dawn Forge as a crutch to look ahead.
Then, he reacted to the Balrog's final word.
“What?”
A few more drops of blood splattered onto the black soil along with his voice.
The beast had said Endure. It was a skill every knight learned, a stepping stone on the path to mastering Iron Armor. It was fundamentally a technique to withstand pain, but...
-Excellent.
Regardless of Encrid’s confusion, the Balrog simply spoke his mind.
Encrid stared at the Balrog's chest. His sword had definitely struck one of those crystals. Yet, there wasn't even a scratch on it. Dawn Forge had not cut the crystal itself, but a barrier enveloping it.
This insidious bastard.
In a previous 'today', the Balrog had revealed his weakness: the three crystals embedded in his chest. However, he had conveniently left out the part about the thick defensive barrier coating them.
No, I expected at least that much.
He just hadn't expected it to be this hard.
Endure—a Will born from the power to withstand pain—served as another suit of armor for the Balrog. And it was currently wrapping the crystals in an impenetrable layer.
So this won't work easily either.
Encrid stared into the Balrog's black-and-yellow pupils. His insides burned as if his organs were boiling. At the very last second, the Elven Cloak had stretched on its own to wrap around his abdomen. If not for that, he wouldn't have even been able to stand.
-To see another human like this in such a short span of time... impressive, the beast said.
Encrid wondered what he meant by "another," but there was no opportunity to ask.
The fire snake flew forward, and a sword of black fire seared and slashed through him. The Balrog had lost interest in a broken toy.
Dying by black fire—even though it wasn't his first time, it was just as agonizing as the first. Still, he had gained something. The barrier protecting the crystals was harder than he’d imagined.
If I put more weight behind the strike, I could have cut through it.
He knew it instinctively. However, to cut even one of those crystals, he would have to trade his life.
-Your observation skills are good too. Very good.
The Balrog praised him repeatedly as the scenery before Encrid's eyes shifted.
Slosh—
He saw the Black River, the ferryboat, and the Ferryman holding the violet lamp.
“You are a pitiful sight.”
The Ferryman mocked him, urging him toward despair and frustration. The moment Encrid thought he had stood up on the ferryboat, the Ferryman pushed him out. Back to reality—another repetition of today.
And upon waking, Encrid...
“Wait. Hold on.”
Before his opponent could say anything about a "guest," Encrid raised a palm to stop him—naturally accompanied by Intimidation—and slowly nodded.
Fine, then. If this method didn't work, he just had to move on to the next.
“...Am I a dog to you?”
Breaking free from the Intimidation, his opponent snapped in anger.
Single-Edged Sword always got angry when ignored, and this fellow always tried to shake his opponent's composure with words before making a move. If it didn't work, he was the one who got flustered.
It was a predictable tactic. He was trying to catch Encrid off guard by asking if he was a dog. Though his eyes weren't visibly darting around, he was likely desperately trying to think of what to say next to make his opponent lower his guard.
“Weren't you?” Encrid retorted casually while devising another approach.
The Balrog enjoys fighting. Is there no way to catch him off guard?
There wasn't. Relying on deception, Encrid lost once again.
A battle of endurance using his inexhaustible Will? That strategy had been shattered long ago. Though he realized something in the process, the Ferryman only sneered.
“Why? Do you think dying together would make you happier?”
If the fight dragged on, the mad knights would catch up from behind. Encrid hadn't faced them directly yet. He had only heard their voices and felt their presence from afar.
“Fi-an-cée!” the elf shouted with an uncharacteristically loud voice.
“Having fun without me again!”
“If you are lost, call out. I will go to you.”
Rem and Ragna.
“Lord, is the prisoner you desire within?”
“Hold on, coming soon.”
Audin and Sachsen.
That was right before he died. Specifically, when he was doing his absolute best to hold out but failed to dodge the Balrog's final strike. As he lay dying, Encrid saw the Balrog's eyes gleaming. The flames swirling inside his pupils flickered wildly. It was a gaze filled with an equal mix of bloodlust and excitement.
That was the lesson he learned. When the Balrog went all out, simply holding his ground was no easy feat. Even when focusing entirely on defense, it was nearly impossible.
Once again, he spent 'today' inside the pitch-black cave.
If I fight without hesitation...
Encrid's next move was to fight with reckless abandon, throwing his own body away. He did not hesitate to subject himself to bone-shattering violence. The Balrog countered in kind.
-Good.
The beast even let out a cheer. Urt severed Encrid's left arm, but in return, Dawn Forge finally pierced one of the crystals.
It was a strike delivered at the cost of his body. And in that process, Encrid felt his Will shift slightly.
It's different again.
Every time he crossed a certain line, he noticed a subtle change in the Balrog's temperament. It was similar to what Ragna showed when swinging his sword with everything he had. In truth, he had caught glimpses of it in Rem and the others as well, though they had only tilted their heads in confusion whenever he asked about it.
Since they cannot observe another's Will, they don't know the difference between their own and someone else's.
By dying over and over, Encrid was able to stack the experience of observing both his own and others' Wills. It wasn't that his knights had dismissed his questions; they had tried to explain in their own ways, drawing from their personal experiences.
“So, you're saying the Captain's Will is a bit bland, but ours isn't, right?” Rem's words flashed through his mind.
“I've always liked hiding sharpness within simplicity. It's a matter of taste,” Sachsen had said.
“I'm going to cut it, so I'm adding that to it.” This was Ragna's attempt at an explanation, but it was something only he could understand. He would say it and nod to himself. It was exasperating to watch him look so enlightened all on his own.
Had Audin smiled and said that divine power was fundamentally different in its direction?
“Shall I inject some Elven Essence into you? Come to me tonight, and I shall do so.”
Amidst these thoughts, the elf's joke crossed his mind, making him chuckle.
Back to reality.
“Are you laughing?”
The man drawing a sword from his sleeve furrowed his brow. It was an act, pretending to be angry at being ignored. That was his specialty. This was the seventy-sixth 'today', and Encrid had only managed to break a single crystal once.
Encrid turned the tables, exploiting his opponent's complacency to thrust his sword. The beam of light, shooting forward like a flash, looked like a single point of light from head-on. It was a high-speed thrust powered by the Point Explosion. Its foundation was the thrust he had learned during his very first 'today', though comparing it to back then was laughable now.
Just as he was about to kill his opponent, the man crossed the swords in both hands and fell backward as if collapsing. In Encrid's 'calculations', the opponent should have dodged by twisting to the side and looking for a counterattack.
Instead, he leaned back and extended his leg. It was an acrobatic move, showing signs of years of training. Supporting his weight on his left foot alone, he kicked out with his right. A thin blade shot out from the tip of his boot, aiming to slit Encrid's throat. Encrid pulled back his thrusting sword.
Clang!
The blade deflected off Dawn Forge, spinning as it flew into the air. Encrid could have ended the fight before that blade even fell. In fact, he hadn't even needed to block it.
It would have only grazed my neck.
Yet, he hadn't done that. Why? A mere whim? Or perhaps he needed more time to think. After all, he hadn't crushed his opponent with Intimidation this time.
No.
It was because the opponent's unexpected attack had vaguely overlapped with the Balrog's kick.
The opponent, who had been balancing on his left foot, kicked the ground to spring back up. Drawing two shortswords, he crossed them in front of his face. He stared at Encrid through the diagonally crossed blades. He observed the 'guest' who had arrived this time. His previous attack was a trump card he had kept hidden, yet it had been blocked. That realization froze his hands and feet.
What is he?
As he stared, the blue-eyed man simply gazed blankly into space.
Is he trying to make me lower my guard?
It was a tactic he used often. Those who wielded deceptive swords were naturally suspicious. He was no exception.
Where did a guy like this come from? he wondered, inwardly shocked.
Then, the focus returned to those blank eyes.
He was actually lost in thought?
What kind of crazy bastard was this?
“We haven't even introduced ourselves all this time. Well, not that we need to know each other's names. Did you learn your basics from the Valen-style Mercenary Sword? Let's keep going.”
Encrid's opponent, Lino, swallowed hard, hiding his mouth and neck behind his two swords so Encrid wouldn't see. No matter how he looked at it, the guy who had walked in this time was a complete lunatic.
“I'm Lino.”
“I told you, names aren't important.”
Encrid spoke as he swung his sword. Lino reflexively put power into his crossed swords and pushed. It was an attack that utilized the friction of clashing blades, and at the same time, sparks erupted from the metal, which was alloyed with a special material.
It wasn't a sustained fire, but rather a burst of sparks akin to a sudden flash. It was a trick to temporarily blind the opponent. Of course, for someone at the level of a knight with highly developed senses, losing sight wasn't fatal. However, suddenly losing vision in the middle of a frantic clash was bound to cause at least a moment's hesitation. The twin spark-inducing swords were designed to create exactly that kind of opening.
And indeed, Encrid was caught off guard.
Those swords.
So they could do something like that. Because he had always cut Lino down so quickly in the past, he had never seen this before.
It resembled the Balrog's kick.
That was the thought that struck him. The way Lino had leaned back and kicked out earlier felt just like it. Though the power, outcome, and movement were different, the underlying process was similar.
The Balrog uses deception too.
The beast would do whatever it took to win. Encrid felt the exact same way. And there was one more thing he realized here.
“There is something to learn even from a farmer who has tilled the soil his entire life.” Those were the words his instructor, who had laid his foundation long ago, had told him.
“You must have learned something from watching Eitri, who can't fight but works with iron, right?” Once again, Luagarne's words overlapped in his mind.
You're a good teacher, Lua. And a wonderful Frok.
She did everything to satisfy her own desires. And that 'everything' included teaching Encrid. Those lessons were engraved deep into his very bones.
I was complacent.
It was time for reflection. From his current opponent to Donapa, and even Single-Edged Sword—they were knights trapped in the Balrog's Labyrinth. There was so much to learn from them, yet he had ignored them all and just passed them by.
I was too drunk on the challenge.
Had he been too excited to finally face an opponent who overwhelmed him after so long? Was that why he had unconsciously taken today's regression for granted? Even though he had sworn never to waste a single 'today'?
Reflection, and yet more reflection.
“Good.”
With all his heart, he watched and stole his opponent's techniques. Encrid truly treated him as a teacher.
“This is great. Got anything else?”
When Encrid spoke, the 'teacher' named Lino could only sputter in utter disbelief.
“This crazy bastard...?”