The Survivor of a Fallen Kingdom
The wall….
I stared blankly at the massive wall that had suddenly appeared before me. At first glance, it looked like an ordinary castle wall, but if I poured even a little mana into my eyes, I could sense the energy of an Outer God leaking from within. That made sense, since it had been created using the royal scepter imbued with an Outer God’s power.
I had no idea what exact wish the princess had made to summon something like this, but she had certainly pulled out something troublesome. She had essentially created excellent cover for a long-range shooter in what had been an empty plain.
Whoosh.
Kwaaaaang—!
I swung a mana-infused fist at it, but instead of breaking, the wall didn’t even get a scratch. My hand was the only thing that ended up stinging.
“If it were a wall that could be destroyed so easily, it wouldn’t have been built in the first place.”
At the same time, the princess’s voice came from above. I lifted my head.
Piiiing—!
A rain of arrows poured down. Even though they contained not a trace of mana, their speed was ferocious. Each shot rivaled the kick she had landed on me earlier. I can’t block that.
I immediately put distance between myself and the wall. One or two arrows I could knock away with my fists, but dealing with that many at once was impossible.
Thud, thud, thud.
Arrows embedded themselves across the entire path I had taken to dodge. There had to be at least a hundred of them. Considering the reputation of the Divine Archer at her peak, firing that many arrows in a single breath probably wasn’t difficult. After all, ordinary arrows like these weren’t meant to kill superhumans—they were for reducing enemy numbers on the battlefield.
The fact that she was using such basic arrows suggested her power wasn’t fully restored… or so I thought.
Piiing—!
Kwaaaaang—!!
An invisible arrow grazed my cheek and flew past. Unlike the previous shots, this one was made purely of mana. It slammed into the ground behind me and triggered a massive explosion. The force was enough to carve a crater into what had been perfectly flat terrain.
Watching the debris fly in every direction, I frowned.
“Mana Arrow?”
An arrow formed entirely from mana. Unlike ordinary arrows, these were created from the user’s internal mana, granting them power and speed that far exceeded normal limits. The technique required was beyond imagination. After all, it wasn’t enough to simply create the arrow—one had to maintain its form from the moment of launch all the way to impact. On top of that, the mana consumption was enormous. Even in the game, it was considered a fairly high-tier skill…
“And she’s spamming it like that?”
I dodged another Mana Arrow that flew toward me and glanced up at the princess. Standing atop the wall, she continued firing arrows brimming with mana, showing no sign of fatigue. The way she alternated between ordinary arrows and Mana Arrows made her look like a cannon endlessly firing shells from a fixed position. Of course, the destructive power was on a completely different level.
Still, even a superhuman had limits to their mana. There was no way she could fire such a technique indefinitely. Since I could endure both the Mana Arrows and regular shots without much trouble, if I just held out long enough, she would eventually be forced to make a decisive move…
But time isn’t on my side.
The amount of time Meln and Sergeant Lucas could hold out was far shorter than the time it would take for her to exhaust her mana and commit to a final gamble. And since the number of contaminants had increased even more after she created that wall, the time we had was probably even shorter.
If those two died and the contaminants swarmed me, there was no way I could survive in my current condition. The princess seemed to know this as well—she was only sending light checks my way, clearly trying to buy time. As I deflected her Mana Arrows, I thought for a moment before making a decision.
“Hup.”
I inhaled deeply, then exhaled. I poured mana into my heated body, igniting my feet with scorching heat. I took a stance that would let me burst forward at any moment, lightly stamped the ground, and—
Kwaaaang—!
I stepped on one of the princess’s arrows and launched myself into the air. Thanks to the sudden surge of mana throughout my body, the arrows that had seemed so fast before now looked sluggish. I stepped on the physical arrows right before they exploded, then pushed off again, running through the sky.
“Got you.”
I landed safely on top of the wall.
— The day the kingdom fell, she stood on these very walls.
— The day she earned the title of Divine Archer.
“Got you.”
The princess stared down at her master as he spoke those words. She was stunned by the impossible feat. To step on her arrows mid-flight, use the momentum to soar through the air, and land on top of the wall in the blink of an eye… Could a human truly perform such a miracle?
Even as she thought that, the person who had just done it was standing right in front of her, so she couldn’t deny it.
“As expected…”
After surviving the kingdom’s destruction thanks to the power of the royal scepter and falling to the southern part of the Empire, the first thing she had done was gather information on Kyle Amillan. The rumors about her master—the Sword Demon—proved that even after all this time, his skills hadn’t dulled in the slightest. She had prepared with the utmost caution.
Yet despite that, the Sword Demon continued to display techniques that surpassed even her imagination.
However—
“That technique probably requires a recovery period, doesn’t it?”
He had momentarily exploded every sense in his body to perform that unimaginable feat. There was no way such power came without risk. If it did, he would have stayed in that state the entire time.
In fact, ever since reaching the top of the wall, Kyle had been breathing heavily, struggling to regain his normal rhythm. He could probably maintain a close-range position against an archer even in that condition, but…
“It doesn’t look like you’ll be able to match the timing.”
The princess’s gaze shifted toward the two men holding back the contaminants. They had already been barely hanging on. Now that the contaminants were fully committed, they were gradually being pushed back. They would likely collapse before her master could fully recover his condition.
It was a meaningless fight. They were merely delaying the inevitable. They probably knew that too.
Yet in their eyes, a flame of hope still burned brightly. Just like the one she had seen on that wall.
Why?
Why are they making such expressions?
If they were destined to die anyway, it would be better not to struggle so desperately.
Arleah de Raziel, survivor of a destroyed kingdom, thought this as she nocked another arrow.
No matter what, all she had to do was buy time. If she just bought enough time, the legion of contaminants would overwhelm the master before her.
“…Or so you’re thinking.”
“……?”
Kyle’s sudden remark, as if he had read her mind, made the princess’s hand tremble. And in that brief moment of hesitation, Kyle moved at an unbelievable speed, closing the distance and striking the royal scepter from her grasp.
The scepter fell helplessly down the wall. She stared at it for a moment before speaking.
“Why?”
“……”
“Why are you struggling so desperately? The scepter cannot be destroyed, and this fight won’t end unless you kill me. Your chances of victory are slim. So why are they fighting so hard?”
The wall would disappear now that the scepter had been knocked away, but the contaminants would remain. As long as the scepter existed, they would continue to pour in, and she was confident she could hold out for that duration. Her master must have known this as well.
So why were they clinging on so tenaciously?
In response to the princess’s question, Kyle let out a small chuckle and said,
“Who said the odds were slim?”
“Looking at the current situation, it’s obviously…”
“That’s what people who’ve let their guard down think. Saying the odds are slim simply means you’re still alive.”
Waaaaaaaaah—!
The moment Kyle finished speaking, cheers erupted from all directions. The ground shook as mana surged everywhere. Beyond the horizon, reinforcements bearing the Empire’s emblem appeared. Mercenary guilds, the Imperial Knights, nearby noble houses, and even superhumans—all united under one banner. The army assembled to exterminate the contaminants charged straight toward them.
Watching the scene, Kyle murmured,
“And as long as you’re still alive, you haven’t lost yet.”
At his words, the princess stared blankly at the contaminants being swept away. She had even forgotten that the bow in her hand was trembling.
In her mind, a question she had carried for a very long time continued to swirl.
The girl who had now become a woman exhaled the cold air that had entered her mouth and looked beyond the wall.
Kwooooooo—!
The uninvited guests who had arrived alongside the bitter winter let out enormous roars, as if demanding to be let inside the castle. Their numbers, glowing with red eyes and wielding rusted greatswords and loose armor, easily reached forty thousand. At the very least, there were over twenty thousand barbarians.
In contrast, the soldiers inside the castle numbered only around two thousand. The citizens who originally lived here had volunteered to enlist, but even that only added up to less than a thousand. The difference was nearly tenfold. Even though sieges were inherently more difficult than defending, such a massive gap in power could not be overcome.
On top of that, the lord of this castle—the original owner—had already lost his life in a previous battle. In truth, this was a fight they could not win. It wouldn’t be strange to say that everyone inside this castle was staring death in the face.
Yet despite that—
“You damn barbarian bastards! You think you can set foot in this castle?!”
“Just try coming. I’ll take your heads.”
“Back in my day, I took the heads of twenty barbarians…!”
What was the reason their will refused to break?
“Your Highness.”
A knight wearing combat armor knelt before the girl who carried that question in her heart. In his hands was not the flag of the castle lord’s family, but one bearing the emblem of the Raziel Kingdom. Considering the knight served the lord’s house, this was essentially an act of treason. Once this war ended, it wouldn’t be strange for that knight to be beheaded by the lord’s family.
Yet the eyes burning beneath his helmet blazed even more fiercely than when she had first seen them. As if that passion were contagious, every knight atop the wall knelt and looked at her with the same gaze.
Everyone was looking at the girl with identical eyes.
The reason these people, whose deaths were drawing near, did not let their emotions fade but instead burned even brighter…
The reason that flame grew large enough to fill the sky…
Why was that?
“Everyone is ready.”
The knight announced that all were prepared, but the girl still could not confirm whether she herself was ready. She still could not understand why she had not fled the forward base.
A girl who had reached the level of superhuman could easily escape the battlefield without being caught by the barbarians.
Everything was incomprehensible.
But—
“I will begin.”
The girl did not run away. She simply did what she had always done—nocking an arrow to her bowstring. Even she did not know why. She only knew that she did not want to extinguish that flame.
The girl stood atop the wall.
And that winter, her army lost two thousand five hundred lives. The castle was taken, and the civilians who barely survived became refugees.
However, the girl who remained in the castle until the very end, helping the citizens retreat and taking the lives of eight thousand barbarians, earned the title of Divine Archer.
It was the moment the First Princess of the Raziel Kingdom truly began to make her name known to the world.