Chapter 223: Frillite (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 223: Frillite (3)
“I told you to put the sword down!”
Cloud shouted at Frillite, who held the holy sword to her own neck. If she didn’t listen, he was prepared to stop her, even if it meant throwing his own sword to sever her wrist.
Fortunately, he didn’t have to resort to such extreme measures.
Frillite looked at Cloud, then dropped the holy sword she was holding.
At that, Cloud was greatly relieved.
Thank god I finished off those guys quickly and came here...
If he had delayed even a little, it would have been a disaster.
After a sigh of relief, Cloud frowned and glared at Frillite.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“It’s exactly as it looks. I had no way to overcome the current situation, so I was trying to kill myself to avoid the worst.”
“...You talk about suicide so casually.”
“Is there any reason I shouldn’t?”
“What?”
“In that situation, I believed it was the best course of action, and I was merely trying to carry it out. Is that wrong?”
Cloud couldn’t bring himself to say it was wrong.
Sacrificing oneself for others.
That was, after all, the universal perception of nobility.
For her, who pursued the ideal of a perfect hero, such a choice was probably natural.
But.
“You could have at least waited a little longer. You could have tried to hold on until I arrived.”
Frillite’s eyes widened.
The blood vessels spreading out from one of her eyes spread even wider.
She glared at Cloud, her expression tinged with anger.
“You? The one who broke his promise to me and met another woman?”
She, who had been sitting the whole time, rose to her feet. Her legs tingled as she straightened her knees for the first time in three days, but she ignored it and gripped the hilt of her greatsword.
“The one who was sleeping with another woman while I was suffering, gritting my teeth and thinking of you just to get by?”
Crack... Thoom!
The floor where the greatsword was embedded cracked, and the ground sank with a shockwave.
As she applied her strength, the greatsword came out effortlessly.
A red sword aura rose from the greatsword.
“The one who went and got another woman pregnant?!”
Frillite kicked off the ground and reached Cloud in an instant. She swung her greatsword, and as it came down diagonally, Cloud countered by raising his own sword in a diagonal slash.
Clang!
Sparks flew as their swords clashed. Cloud strained to keep from being pushed back and said,
“...Calm down. This isn't like you.”
Frillite twisted her body and kicked Cloud in the side. Thud! He flew through the air and slammed into one of the temple walls.
Just as Cloud grimaced from the sharp pain in his side, she spoke.
“And what is ‘like me’ supposed to be?”
Before he could even recover, Frillite closed in and brought her greatsword down.
Cloud held his sword horizontally with both hands to block the attack. There was an immense difference in mass between the two swords, but Cloud's blade didn't break thanks to his dense sword aura.
With their swords locked, she began to press down, and the crushing force was extraordinary.
This was to be expected. Just like Osner, the former Grand Duke of the Polizia Duchy, Frillite's physical abilities had been strengthened beyond comparison by the Parasite, the last of the Four Heavenly Kings.
Moreover, unlike Osner, she was host to the main body of the Heavenly King, so the change was difficult to put into words.
Therefore, it was no surprise that Cloud's arms trembled as he blocked the crushing weight of the greatsword.
“Well... at least you weren't being swayed by a monster like you are now, were you?”
Frillite withdrew her greatsword and kicked Cloud in the abdomen with the tip of her boot. Craaack! The impact traveled through Cloud's back to the wall behind him, sending stone fragments flying.
Frillite grabbed the collar of the groaning Cloud and lifted him up.
“You talk so easily. It's mostly your fault I ended up like this.”
She threw him toward the opposite wall.
Thump, thump, thump, CRASH!!
He bounced across the floor and slammed into another wall. He collapsed to the floor amid a shower of falling stone fragments, but soon got up, dusted himself off, and spat blood onto the ground.
“Yeah, it's mostly my fault... Still, if I were to make a pathetic excuse—”
“I don't need your excuses.”
The sword aura on the greatsword surged as if about to overflow.
Soon, the aura detached from the greatsword, forming a sharp blade all on its own.
A blade reaching 2.5 meters.
Frillite lifted the massive greatsword and took her stance.
“Just take a beating.”
Frillite kicked off the ground. Boom! As marble fragments flew, her form vanished. She reappeared in front of Cloud and swung her greatsword.
Seeing the greatsword approach at high speed with immense wind pressure, Cloud realized.
If I try to block this, I'll be sliced to pieces.
How was this supposed to be just ‘a bit’ of a beating?
Of course, I know she's like this because of the Heavenly King, but...
Cloud sighed and brought the flat of his blade to meet the red, greatsword-shaped sword aura. Just before the greatsword made contact, he angled his sword, causing the greatsword to slide down the flat of his blade without imparting any impact.
A clean parry.
But Frillite's attack didn't stop with a single blow. The greatsword was far longer than Cloud's own sword. She continued her one-sided assault from a distance where Cloud's sword couldn't reach.
The storm of red arcs was sharp enough to tear apart anything nearby.
However, the storm only cut through the air, failing to slice a single bit of flesh and blood. This was because Cloud flawlessly deflected every attack, creating a space around him like the eye of a typhoon.
Among the countless red arcs, not a single one touched Cloud's skin.
“...Tch.”
Frillite clicked her tongue in annoyance. The moment her deflected strike shattered the floor, she let go of her greatsword. She lunged forward and slammed her fist into his solar plexus.
“Ugh.”
While Cloud grimaced in pain, she hooked his heel with her foot and pushed him.
Cloud fell with almost absurd ease.
Frillite straddled his stomach.
Anticipating what was next, Cloud immediately brought his arms up to guard.
And just as he expected, an indiscriminate pounding rained down on his guard!
Smack! Smack! Smack!!
The brutal sound of strikes that seemed capable of breaking bones.
Indeed, if his body had been any weaker, they might have broken.
But he was sturdy, and his bones didn't break.
Frustrated, Frillite grabbed Cloud's wrists and pulled them apart. She bent her upper body back as far as it would go, then slammed her forehead down.
CRACK!
Her forehead literally split the marble floor. Cloud, who had avoided the headbutt by a hair's breadth, whispered in her ear.
“A headbutt is a bit much, don't you think...”
“...”
“Uh... um... H-Hey, Frillite? You're glaring really scari—Gack!?”
Frillite's fist smashed into Cloud's jaw. Feeling his head spin, Cloud decided this had gone too far and bucked his hips upward.
She, who had been on top of him, was momentarily lifted into the air, and he used that opening to slip out from under her.
His right wrist was still in her grasp, so it was hard to say he had completely escaped.
Frillite, who had been lifted into the air, quickly regained her balance and resumed her barrage of punches. Cloud, who had deflected all her sword strikes, only blocked her punches and kicks, not trying to dodge them.
It really is my fault, after all.
Even if it wasn't intentional, it was an undeniable fact that he had hurt her.
He didn't know how deep that wound was. He wasn't her. So he had no choice but to let her hit him until she felt better. Still, he couldn't just let himself get killed by a sword stri—
“..?”
Cloud tilted his head to the side. For the first time, Frillite's fist cut through empty air, and her wrist was caught by him.
As soon as her fist was caught, her rising leg was stopped as he stomped on her instep.
At Cloud's sudden change in attitude, Frillite looked at his face, which allowed him to get a proper look at her eyes.
“Both of your eyes are black now?”
His gaze turned cold.
Sensing the change, Frillite tried to headbutt him again, but Cloud easily dodged. He reached out with his right hand, grabbed her breastplate, and spun, throwing her to the ground.
He didn't do it hard enough to cause serious impact, but it was enough to free his wrist from her grip.
Frillite immediately got up and created some distance.
Cloud shook his stiff right wrist and looked at her.
“I was too busy getting my ass kicked to notice the change. I was completely fooled.”
He shook his head and asked her.
“Since when?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I'm talking about when you took over Frillite's body. Seeing as you used killing moves from the start, was it from the moment she drew her sword?”
“I don't know what you're talking about. Is that all the nonsense you have to say?”
“...Right, that's not what's important. What's important is that you're not Frillite. And...”
Cloud's aura changed completely.
Like a beast he'd thought was a herbivore suddenly baring its sharp fangs.
“That I don't need to take a beating from someone who isn't Frillite.”
Seeing Cloud warming up, Frillite narrowed her eyes.
“You act as if you could win anytime you wanted.”
A red energy rose from Frillite. The energy spread quickly, forming a large circle around her, and the mana that dyed the surroundings red coalesced into the shapes of weapons.
Frillite de Ferdiac.
<Unique Magic>
[Sovereign's Domain]
“And here I haven't even shown my true power yet.”
The hundreds of weapons embroidering the air were ready to rain down on the enemy at their master's command.
Watching this, Cloud made a grim expression.
“I never heard she had something like this.”
He fumbled inside his clothes and pulled out a brilliant golden ring.
The Knight King's Ring.
The moment he slipped it onto his index finger.
“Pay the price for your arrogance.”
The weapons rained down upon him.