Chapter 375: Dawn (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 375: Dawn (3)
Delia.
She was born in a small country village in southern Scotland.
Though it was a far cry from the glamorous life of the city, Delia loved her village more than anyone.
The endless blue sky, the fields swaying in the wind, and the tranquil scenery of the village always seeped deep into her heart, making a smile blossom on her face.
Although they weren't well-off, it was a peaceful place with significantly lower taxes than other territories and little damage from monsters.
However, as was typical for a country village, she couldn't attend school. Her days were a somewhat tedious repetition of tending to livestock and studying alone at home.
Of course, that didn't mean she was unhappy.
Living peacefully with her beloved family was a precious happiness she wouldn't trade for anything.
But on the day of her eighteenth birthday...
“...Mom?”
Delia realized.
That a peace that lasts forever does not exist in this world.
“Grrrr...”
“Kaaaaah!!!”
As Delia and the villagers fled due to a Gate Break in a nearby territory, a horde of vicious monsters appeared before them.
“Delia! Run!”
“B-But...”
“Hurry!”
In that desperate situation, Delia's parents grabbed old farm tools and charged at the monsters to save their only daughter.
And the others did the same.
Each of them took up arms to save their families.
But there was no way ordinary people, not Hunters, could win against a pack of dozens of monsters.
It was the beginning of a one-sided slaughter.
-Aaaah!!
-M-Mom!!
-These fucking monster bastards!!
Some screamed for revenge and charged the monsters, while others fled into the forest on trembling legs.
Delia was among them.
“Hah, hah, hah...!”
Just an ordinary country girl, Delia felt an irresistible terror swallow her whole the moment she locked eyes with a monster.
As she ran through the forest, her face pale, her mind was in more turmoil than ever before.
'W-Why are monsters here?!'
'What about Mom and Dad...? My friends?'
'W-Where am I supposed to go now...?'
'I'm scared, I'm scared, I'm scared...!'
The fear of the monsters, the guilt of abandoning her family and friends, and the hopelessness of not knowing where to go.
All these emotions tangled together, paralyzing Delia's thoughts.
Tears blurred her vision, and her breath hitched in her throat.
But Delia couldn't stop.
-Kuaaack!!
-Kyaaak!!
The screams coming from all directions were violently pushing her forward.
Though there was nothing behind her, an instinctual alarm bell, warning that to stop for even a moment meant death, whipped her onward.
Thud-
“...Ah.”
But in that moment, Delia tripped on a tree root and fell.
She was heading down a slope, so she lost her balance and tumbled down with a scream.
Twigs and sharp stones on the ground mercilessly pierced and scratched her delicate skin.
But perhaps fortune was on her side.
“Ugh, uuk...!”
Despite tumbling down the steep slope, Delia hadn't broken any bones or been seriously injured.
Even so, she had no time to feel relieved.
Dragging her battered body, she struggled to her feet and began to move forward again.
Having grown up in the countryside, Delia knew well how persistent and tenacious wild animals could be.
It went without saying that it would be even worse with vicious monsters.
Delia repeated to herself, as if urging herself on, that the best thing to do was to get out of the forest as quickly as possible and call the knights.
After pushing through the undergrowth several times with her injured body, she came upon a small, quiet lake.
Her throat was parched, so without a moment's hesitation, she dropped to her knees, bent over, and quenched her thirst.
Gulp, gulp, gulp.
“Hahh...”
As the cold water ran over her chapped lips and down her throat, Delia let out a short breath and a sigh of relief.
But at the same time, the image of her parents' backs as they fought the monsters kept flashing before her eyes.
“Mom, Dad...”
Tears quickly welled up in Delia's eyes.
But only for a moment. She washed her wounds with water and pulled out the thorns embedded in her skin.
There was no time to waste.
Escaping the forest as fast as possible to get help was the only way to save her parents.
Steeling her resolve once more, the trembling in Delia's eyes vanished.
Rustle-
But there was one thing Delia had forgotten.
“Grrrr...”
“?!”
That a wolf could smell blood from up to five kilometers away if the scent was carried on the wind.
When she turned her head, a large wolf emerged from beyond the bushes.
It was a C-rank monster, a Direwolf.
Its massive body, which looked to be three times the size of an ordinary wolf, and its bloodshot eyes staring her down were enough to paralyze the young girl's reason.
An irresistible fear wrapped around her entire body.
Delia's body began to tremble faintly.
But the problem didn't end there.
Rustle-
With a look of despair, Delia watched as more wolves emerged one by one from the bushes.
There looked to be well over ten of them.
Instantly surrounded by the pack of monsters, Delia's face turned pale.
The lake was at her back, and the growling monsters filled her vision.
Even if she jumped into the lake, there was no way she could swim properly in her current condition.
Besides, wolves were known to be good swimmers, and Delia had never learned how.
She would surely be caught before long.
Most importantly, turning her back now might only provoke them further.
She was completely cornered.
Delia carefully stepped backward. One step, then another.
But only for a moment.
Splash.
“...!”
One of her feet had slipped into the lake.
Fortunately, the water was shallow, so she didn't fall backward, but she couldn't deny that there was nowhere left to retreat.
“...I don't want to die.”
It was a whispered confession from her heart, but no matter how she thought about it, she could see no way out of this situation.
For her, who had never even properly held a weapon, breaking through the Direwolves' encirclement with her bare hands was practically impossible.
For a moment, an image of her own cold corpse, reduced to a meal for the beasts, flashed before Delia's eyes.
The mere thought made it hard to breathe.
“Grrrr...!!”
“...No.”
Watching the pack of Direwolves close in, Delia shed tears.
Their muzzles were stained with blood from some unknown victim.
“Graaaah!!!”
“No!!”
Its patience finally gone, a Direwolf opened its jaws wide and lunged at her.
The moment Delia screamed and squeezed her eyes shut—
Fwaaaah—!!!!
A pillar of pure white light erupted from the lake.
It was a flash so intense it could have blinded an ordinary person, yet far from being dazzled, Delia felt the wounds on her body slowly begin to heal.
And when she cautiously looked forward...
The Direwolves were backing away, cowering as if in fear of the pillar of light.
Stunned by the completely unexpected sight, Delia slowly turned her head to look past the light.
“...That's.”
A beautiful, jet-black sword was floating in the air.
In that moment, as if possessed, Delia moved toward the sword.
Splash!
She walked to the center of the lake, yet the water barely reached her ankles.
Even though the lake had looked quite deep from the outside.
But Delia didn't even question it.
The only thing that mattered to her now...
...
...was to touch that sword, which seemed to be calling to her desperately.
The moment Delia's fingertips touched the black sword—
-!!!!!!!
A brilliant and sacred radiance, incomparable to before, swallowed her surroundings.
Her consciousness ended there.
˙
˙
˙
Time passed, and when Delia regained consciousness, it was all over.
With heavy, sunken eyes, she looked upon the terrible reality.
...
“...I'm sorry.”
Her friends, the villagers, even her parents.
Upon hearing that not a single person had survived, Delia could only stare into space with a look of utter devastation.
She was the sole survivor of the incident that would later be called the 'Willowby Village Tragedy.'
And from that day on, Delia became the master of the Holy Sword.
It was a hellish rise in status that she, a mere country girl, had obtained in exchange for her precious daily life.
Hearing the news that a new master of the Holy Sword had appeared, Duke Winchester rushed to find Delia, but she was no longer in her right mind.
Family, friends, neighbors—everyone was dead.
The fact that she alone had wretchedly survived tormented Delia's body and soul.
From that day on, she lived like a wreck for nearly half a year.
She met no one and did nothing.
Then one day, Delia suddenly began to practice swordsmanship.
No one knew what had caused this change of heart.
All anyone knew was that whether it rained or snowed, she swung her sword silently and desperately, without taking a single day off.
But even now, after three years, the Holy Sword had never once responded to her call.
*
KWAANG!!!
“Keuk!!”
With an explosion of aura, Delia's body was sent flying helplessly backward.
She had skillfully offset the impact with her sword, so the damage wasn't severe, but the aftershock shattered her stance.
“You block quite well. But how will you block this?”
“?!”
Seizing the opening, Van Kruger instantly closed the distance and threw a punch at Delia's side.
Delia swung her sword reflexively, but—
KWANG!!
“Kyaak!!”
It was impossible for Delia, who could barely muster an aura, to completely block an attack from him using a Knuckle Blade—Gwongang.
Tumbling across the ground again, Delia ignored the pain racking her body and scrambled to her feet.
“What do you hope to accomplish by moving so sluggishly?”
But Van Kruger was a step faster, closing in on Delia and throwing another punch.
Just as the tyrannical strike, condensed with overwhelming aura and demonic energy, rushed in to end her life—
KWAAANG!!!
An opaque curtain of light appeared and blocked his fist.
Van Kruger frowned at the sight.
This was the very reason he hadn't been able to defeat Delia, who was so much weaker than him.
It was the protective barrier, one of the abilities of the Holy Sword, Excalibur.
A barrier comparable to that of an 8th Circle Mage, it appeared like a ghost whenever Delia was on the verge of death, blocking Van Kruger's attacks.
'It won't last much longer.'
Van Kruger smiled to himself.
At first, he'd found it annoying.
But the fact that the barrier wasn't maintained at all times was as good as a confession that its power had a limit.
More importantly, the last clash had confirmed it.
It could create the barrier at most one more time.
“I will kill you with my next attack.”
Van Kruger declared to Delia.
It wasn't an empty threat.
Rumble—
Indeed, the demonic energy gathering around him radiated an intensity and malevolence far beyond anything before.
But Delia did not back down.
Instead, she gritted her teeth, gripped the hilt of her sword, and slowly poured her magic into it.
Desperately praying that it would answer her call, just this once.
-...
But once again, the Holy Sword remained silent.
Delia's expression darkened.
The only reason she had been able to hold on until now was purely thanks to the power of the Holy Sword and the artifacts she had received from Duke Winchester.
But even those had now reached their limit.
The artifacts had long since broken, and the power of the Holy Sword granted to her was also running out.
On top of that, she had lost so much blood that her vision was blurry, and it felt as if the sword would slip from her hand if she relaxed her grip for even a second.
She hadn't neglected her training for a single day in the past three years, but for someone with no real combat experience, Van Kruger was an insurmountable wall.
And Delia knew this better than anyone.
That she could never beat the man before her, not even if she died and came back to life.
Woooong-
But she had no intention of giving up.
A golden aura rose from the jet-black Holy Sword.
RUMBLE—!!!
Meanwhile, a vast amount of demonic energy and magic was gathering around Van Kruger's fist.
He intended to shatter the barrier with this attack and take Delia's head with the follow-up.
“Die.”
Van Kruger charged toward Delia with the force of a storm.
In its wake, everything around them was laid to waste.
Delia's aura was like a candle flame before a great typhoon.
A precarious light that looked as if it could be extinguished at any moment.
But even so, she swung her sword.
With the resolve not to break, even if it meant dying right here.
Vwoom!!!
But a step faster than her sword, the protective barrier enveloped Delia.
It was as if the Holy Sword knew.
That Delia's action was more reckless than throwing an egg against a rock.
KWAGAGAGANG!!!
And then, a tremendous impact struck the barrier.
The barrier, which had never so much as flinched against any attack before, shook precariously as if it would shatter at any moment.
In that instant—
Crack!
Van Kruger's fist shattered the protective barrier.
Seeing this, he gave a triumphant smile.
“It's over.”
With half-lidded eyes, Delia watched the fist flying toward her.
The Gwongang covering his fist was like a blazing fire.
Delia tried to swing her sword somehow, but as if she had already reached her limit, she couldn't even move a finger.
'...Am I going to die like this?'
Sensing her death, a single tear quietly rolled from her eye.
It would be a lie to say she wasn't scared.
And it would also be a lie to say she didn't want to live.
But there was nothing she could do in this situation.
She could only accept it.
'...There is one thing left, though.'
Delia looked straight at the final blow flying toward her.
She didn't want to squeeze her eyes shut like she did that day.
However, the scene that unfolded before her eyes was completely different from what she had expected.
“You're...”
A small light flickered in Delia's cold, sunken eyes.
Despite being covered in wounds, a broad, reliable back stood blocking her path.
“Sorry I'm late.”