Chapter 9
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: 3. Ceres
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The blade swallowed blood that reeked of a foul stench.
Arbelia's breathing was already ragged. At her feet lay countless corpses.
They were the things she had cut down so far. Not just upper-level demons, but human corpses as well.
Corpses of members of the Empire's worst criminal organization, Blue Moon.
They had desperately tried to stop Arbelia from severing the flower stem. This was the result.
"...Damn it."
Right next to the flower stem stood a man. Ludwig, who had grown noticeably gaunt in the time since she last saw him.
"Is your loyalty to the corrupt Empire that strong, Sword Saint? I can't understand it."
Ludwig's voice was flat, but beneath that flatness boiled a feverish madness.
One of his arms was unnaturally twisted, blood flowing ceaselessly.
"Loyalty... no."
Arbelia shook the black blood from her blade as she spoke.
"If you have no loyalty to the Empire, then what is this behavior? Why are you blocking us?"
'Five minutes left. I have to kill Blue Moon and cut the flower stem before then.'
Arbelia's gaze fixed on the flower bud writhing as if alive.
Between the thick, moist petals, something bloated and grotesque pulsed.
The heart of a new demon. It had to be severed before it fully matured.
"Because that's my duty."
Arbelia. What drove her was not loyalty, but a sense of duty.
'I hate borrowing that man's words here, but...'
"The reason we have power is to use it for those who don't. It's not given to us for abuse."
The strong protect the weak. It was simple common sense.
Ludwig didn't waver. Nor did he deny Arbelia's convictions.
Because he had once held them himself.
"That's sound logic. The strong should protect the weak. But do you know this?"
Ludwig twisted the corner of his mouth. It was hard to tell if it was a smile or a convulsion.
"As long as the Empire endures, the weak will only be exploited by the strong. To shatter the system and paint an ideal paradise, blood must be spilled. There's no such thing as a bloodless revolution."
He acknowledged Arbelia's beliefs and accepted them. But he didn't put them into practice.
A logical contradiction. From her viewpoint, Ludwig was a warped man.
'Persuasion won't work. I didn't expect it to. Then...'
Arbelia spoke up.
"When I first saw you at the auction house, you seemed pretty level-headed. Right? Even while facing me, you kept worrying about your comrades."
"..."
"You've changed a lot in just one month. Now you don't even blink when a comrade dies right in front of you. That must be the sacrifice you talked about?"
The fake smile that had flickered across Ludwig's face vanished.
His pupils momentarily filled with something surging from deep within.
Arbelia couldn't make it out. The moment was too fleeting.
"...Sacrifice. Yes."
Ludwig muttered lowly.
"It was a noble sacrifice, one born of necessity. Thus, the duty of the survivor—me—is singular."
Ludwig and Arbelia locked eyes.
"I will uphold my ideals until the moment I die...!"
Ludwig raised his hand, and Arbelia kicked off the ground.
Bodies soared into the air. Arbelia's form blinked away like a flicker, reappearing right before Ludwig.
Kagagak!!
The remaining Blue Moon remnants crossed axes and greatswords to block her sword strike.
Red vines sprouted right beneath Arbelia, hindering her movements.
'Magic...!'
She stomped hard to rip away the vines, then propelled her body like a spring to deflect the assaults closing in from all sides.
In extreme focus, the world's time slowed to a crawl.
She halted a spear stabbing like a beam of light mid-air, and just as she thrust her sword at Ludwig.
Ludwig, experiencing the same slowed time, moved his lips.
"And my current goal is—"
Ludwig continued, gazing at the flower bud with his blood-smeared face.
"To make this flower bloom."
The infinitely slowed time snapped back.
Arbelia twisted her waist to absorb the rebounding force, stamped the ground with her toes, and swung her sword again from the opposite side.
"...!"
Arbelia's ankle twisted backward. She had forced the movement.
Wooddrk!
One man's head flew off. Blood spurted like a fountain.
But seizing that gap, two others charged from the flank.
Arbelia kicked the axe ahead with her right foot while subtly twisting her body.
She dodged the greatsword swinging down from above. The blade grazed her armor, sparking flames.
Kwaaaaang!!
The man kicked by the axe crashed into the wall and collapsed. Arbelia pressed forward through the opening, but her broken ankle fully wrenched.
"...!"
Thorn vines bursting from the ground coiled around her ankle.
The giant wielding the greatsword roared and charged head-on.
'If I slash the vines on my ankle, no chance to block the greatsword. Block the greatsword, and the vines bind me completely.'
Arbelia hurled her sword.
The thrown blade flew at light speed, piercing the greatsword giant's shoulder.
"Kuaaaak!!"
Simultaneously, Arbelia shot her hand out like lightning and seized the giant's hand. She snapped it, stealing the greatsword.
She slammed the greatsword down at the floor. The ground crumbled, breaking the vines' hold.
Kwoong-!!
The massive flower bud was ponderously unfurling.
Malice seeping between thick petals crushed the air, powerful irregular throbs emanating from its center.
Tok, tok, tok, tuduk!
The heartbeat suddenly accelerated. The demon was awakening.
"This...!"
In that instant, a poison needle flying from afar grazed her forearm. Paralytic toxin. Her arm grew heavy at once.
The remaining three Blue Moon members lunged from all directions.
Blades clashed, new gashes appearing on her armor.
'Time... not enough time.'
Arbelia flicked her eyes toward the flower bud.
Between petals teetering on the brink of full bloom, a massive yellow pupil dimly gleamed.
The pupil bore a vertical slit, brimming with endless hunger and madness.
'30 seconds left...!'
She felt the eye turning toward Arbelia—slowly, excruciatingly slowly. Another petal drifted away.
Part of a massive horn emerged.
The horn was twisted, a blood-like fluid trickling down its surface.
Dudududu-!
The demon's heartbeat thundered louder and faster.
With the bud half-open, black finger-like protrusions inside began shoving the petals apart.
Each finger as thick as a grown man's arm, tipped with black claws that seemed to devour light.
'10 seconds left. Time for the all-or-nothing play.'
She stomped hard with her shattered ankle.
Mental fortitude unclouded by agony allowed her to touch the Domain once more.
In a flash, color bled from the world. A monochrome realm.
Arbelia's right foot shattered completely. But it was enough.
'If they block me, cut down the blockers in one stroke—'
Suddenly, the texture of the air utterly transformed.
"...!!"
No gale swept in, no shift in temperature.
But unmistakably, someone had entered this space.
A bizarre void lingered, as if the demon's presence and the bud's pressure had momentarily dimmed.
Everyone—even the Blue Moon fighters—instinctively froze.
On the rubble of a collapsed building, slightly distant from the flower stem, one person stood.
Tall and lithe build. Untouched by time's wear, a young and sharp visage.
The young man's stance, his breathing, his oneness with the air.
Everything evoked perfect normalcy, yet that very normalcy clashed starkly with this infernal landscape.
Arbelia, recognizing the man before her, widened her eyes.
Her breath hitched, her heart ground to a halt.
The scene trembled, overlaying a fragment from long-buried memories.
In her mind, every thought, every strategy, every crisis sense blanked to white.
The young man turned his head. The exact same eyes she remembered.
Cold yet profound, gray irises like they cradled stars.
"Arbelia."
The voices overlapped. The voice of that man she had desperately tried to forget.
[Arbelia.]
The eyes of the man who had called her were serene.
Arbelia thought they resembled tranquil waves.
[My beloved daughter.]
The man occasionally wore a lonely expression. It resembled the face of an ascetic enduring excruciating pain and torment.
Whenever he did, she wanted to help him.
She wanted her very existence to blanket his loneliness.
[Did you enjoy the family play?]
⟨ Memory Echo ⟩
It was a ridiculous delusion.
In that instant, Arbelia's mind went stark white.
"You bastard―――!!!"
Arbelia forgot even the demon's presence and charged at the young man before her.
In response, the young man smirked and replied.
"Yeah, good to see you too. We couldn't properly greet each other on the train, right?"