Chapter 38
Chapter 38
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: Trajectories: Celestia (4)
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Leon Byrante.
He was a figure like the symbol of the White Order.
Born with the talent for the sword, a paladin who possessed piety as innate as his nature.
The praises sung for him were too numerous to count even with Leon's own hands.
The Living Saint.
Partia's Guardian.
Master of the Evil-Exterminating Holy Sword.
One of the Seven Pillars.
And, Sword Saint——.
The saint of the White Order, who had received a great mission, poured holy power into the holy sword gripped in his hand.
"—[Holy Sword] activate."
Right after the heavy words flowed from Leon's mouth.
Leon's holy sword, assembled from pieces of various kinds, began to activate, scattering multicolored lights in all directions.
Wuuuuuum-.
The city walls began to vibrate.
Fragments of light infused with divinity refracted chaotically.
Fwaaaah-!
Partia's Guardian, clutching the holy sword, revealed a halo behind him.
A shimmering, ever-changing radiance.
A beautiful aura enveloped Leon's body.
The heavy waves of holy power spreading from Leon Byrante silenced the watching priests all at once.
"……."
"……."
A scene filled with reverence.
Amid the silence that settled over the city walls, Leon's eyes fixed on the threat approaching the holy city.
His sharp gaze fell upon a monstrous aberration mimicking human form.
Crackle, crackle-!
A silhouette wrapped in black radiance advanced toward the holy city of Partia.
Endless magic power.
A destructive impulse not of this world mercilessly swept through the surroundings.
'The body can't handle the overflowing power. It's the backlash from forcing strength into an ill-fitting vessel.'
His eyes, enhanced by holy power, pierced through the enemy.
The monster's displayed might was worthy of being called a calamity.
However, the body brimming with immense magic power was crumbling under the strain of power beyond its limits.
The very miracles the monster wielded were proof they weren't originally its own.
'Did the black mages in the Empire secretly conduct some ritual?'
He couldn't tell which faction had unleashed such a monster upon the earth.
But no matter who created such a horrific beast, Leon had only one task.
The threat directly confronting the holy city of Partia.
That fact meant only one thing.
—Holy War.
It was time to crush the schemes of the heretics who betrayed their god.
"Great miracle. Guide of missions. Grant me permission to cut down your foes—."
Shring-.
Leon's hand tilted the holy sword brimming with brilliant light.
The holy sword, imbued with the will to exterminate evil, trembled fiercely as it aimed at the monster before him.
Even as Leon targeted the enemy ahead, the calamity advancing on the holy city did not halt.
Kwaaaaaang-!
Black lightning extending around the monster collapsed everything nearby once more.
Rocks scattered in all directions.
The acrid smell of burning pierced the nose.
Leon, watching it all, locked eyes with the monster charging forward.
- …….
Countless soldiers and priests waiting on the city walls.
Leon’s power, projected outward without harming them, was limited.
However, the monster before him was equally unable to wield its full might freely.
It was restricting its output to bear the burden on its body.
Swoosh.
The monster, meeting his gaze, twitched its crumbling lips.
Watching it, Leon thrust the Evil-Exterminating Holy Sword straight ahead.
"—Pierce."
The white holy sword took in light.
Soon, a burst of intense flash erupted.
Kwaaaaaaang—!
Vast holy power extended from Leon's sword.
A destructive, ruinous trajectory.
The surging flash split into dozens of streaks, pounding the crumbling monster's body.
Kwaang! Kbang! Kwaaaang-!
Explosions and roars alternated in echoes.
The split radiance burst like stars.
Countless stars scattered, unleashing chaotic blasts everywhere.
Kwaang! Kwaaaang-!
Blazing divine stars.
Explosions of every color tore into the monster's body as it advanced on the holy city.
- Aaaaaaah——!
The monster, shrouded in pitch-black radiance, let out a scream.
Its body was already rotting to the point of visible limits, yet it still felt pain.
Leon frowned at the ear-shattering scream.
Crackle, crackle-.
Having taken Leon's powerful strike, the monster gathered its output while clinging to its disintegrating body.
"Such a pity... I failed to kill it in one blow."
The Sword Saint's single strike had failed to fell the monster.
And the result of that failure now manifested before Leon's eyes.
Screeech, screeeeech-.
Twisting its neck at an eerie angle, the monster drew in magic power.
Crackle, crrrackle-.
Black lightning flickered around it once more.
"The enemy... is preparing its next attack......"
"L-Lord Leon......!"
An assault ignoring the body's limits.
The unprecedented monster began its death throes.
Watching the scene, Leon wore an awkward expression.
"This makes it hard for me to block the attacks alone."
The magic power surrounding the monster was too potent.
It had chipped away at Leon's 'miracle' to some degree.
Hearing the priests' voices echoing behind him, Leon lifted his sword again with a troubled face.
Fwaat-!
Leon's sword took in light once more.
Targeting such a Leon, the monster wrapped in flashes unleashed a black trajectory.
- Aaaah... Aaaaaaah......!
With a scream that could tear eardrums, the monster's strike tore through the air.
Kwaaaaaang-!
A flash infused with darkness extended once more.
Kwaaaaaaang-!
Leon’s radiance, infused with divinity, met it head-on.
Two opposing mystic forces clashed in midair.
Intertwining light and light.
Clashing space and space.
Creak-.
Amid it, an alien sound burrowed into Leon's ear.
"Urk......!"
Leon grimaced as fragments of the split black flash struck the city walls around him.
Kwaang! Kwaaaang-!
The divine barrier shattered, and the flash of ruin collided with Partia's walls.
Soldiers on the walls prostrated in terror-stricken faces.
Priests who saw the black trajectory graze the walls let out sighs.
Crack, craaaack-.
The divine barrier etched into the walls began to fracture.
"Ahh, great Guide......!"
"Save us from this tribulation......!"
"......!"
The priests' prayers echoed across the walls before the spreading cracks in the divine barrier.
And before them, Leon's sword plunged into the thick darkness.
Kwachik-.
One step.
The light advanced.
Kwaduduk-.
Another step.
The light cleaved through the darkness.
The moment the untainted light pressed forward to the end.
Kwaaaaaang-.
Leon’s radiance had pierced the aberrant monster charging ahead.
- …….
A silence like a sigh spread.
Leon's eyes fixed on the enemy with its heart run through.
Thud-.
The final pulse stopped.
And the silhouette wrapped in brain lightning came to a complete halt.
"......It's over."
Swish-.
The charred black body crumbled into ashes and scattered.
The magic power, having lost its vessel, rose as a black pillar piercing the sky.
Leon's eyes watched the black pillar connecting heaven and earth.
Hoo-.
A sigh leaked out.
Leon extinguished the light of the Evil-Exterminating Holy Sword.
With the enemy felled, his role was done.
"I'll report to the Saintess myself. Prioritize repairing the walls."
"......"
Flick, clunk-.
After sheathing the holy sword that had fulfilled its purpose, Leon spoke to the paladins on the walls.
Were they overwhelmed by the battle they had just witnessed?
The paladins guarding the walls offered only silent gazes of awe, unable to reply.
"Step aside. You're in my way back."
When Leon's gaze turned to the priests blocking his path, they finally made way toward the stairs.
Step, step-.
Leon's footsteps echoed on the walls.
'Had it reached the holy city with an intact body, the battle wouldn't have ended this quickly.'
During the descent of the steep walls.
Leon's eyes sank into contemplation.
'There was reason for the oracle. The Order must prepare countermeasures for the threats ahead—.'
The saint's eyes recalled the fading black flash.
Sword Saint, Leon Byrante.
This was the moment he first confronted a threat from the outside world.
* * * * * *
The Barion Marquisate, located in the northwest of the Empire.
In the midst of a forest thick with underbrush, a six-legged chimera advanced carrying a person.
Thud-. Thud-. Thud-. Thud-.
Each time the massive chimera moved its legs, the ground vibrated with resounding booms.
Startled by its grotesque form, the forest animals scattered and fled in all directions.
Atop such a chimera, sword-bearer Leintus leaned on the railing and spoke.
"Hey, Doctor... No matter how I think about it, is this really okay?"
Leintus's voice, laced with exasperation, rang out toward the researcher before him.
Madman, Begerton Antares.
Leintus often vividly recalled the meaning of the moniker attached to him.
And this time was no different.
The scene he had encountered in the Empire's borderlands—.
It was so shocking and alien that it wouldn't be strange if it haunted his dreams.
"Leintus. What's a grown man got to worry so much about?"
Heh heh-.
In response to such a Leintus, the doctor replied with a chilling laugh.
The doctor, piloting the multi-legged chimera bug 'Bug', grinned ear-to-ear as if overjoyed by the gods.
What could possibly make him so happy?
Recalling the results of the failed experiment, Leintus clicked his tongue and addressed the doctor.
"I knew we had plenty of enemies from the start, but wasn't this experiment on too grand a scale?"
"......"
"No matter how I look at it, I doubt it'll end with just a bounty hike."
Leintus said this while leaning on the crude railing installed on 'Bug'.
"Hmm-. Are you perhaps worried that the 'failure' might have headed toward the holy city?"
Click-.
In response, the doctor adjusted the monocle over one eye and asked Leintus back.
"The opponent's that Order. You know better than anyone what happens if you poke them once."
White Order.
The name of the religious group wielding influence across the continent slipped from Leintus's mouth.
For those affiliated with the Magic Research Society, the weight of the word 'Order' was never light.
And for good reason—they hunted or executed mages who delved into taboos.
"Even just counting the members executed after capture by the Order, it's too many to tally on one hand."
The Radical Magic Research Society was a gathering of those who learned dangerous magic.
How many mages in such a society avoided taboos or black magic?
From the doctor before Leintus's eyes to countless others, many were on death lists for that very reason.
Of course, Leintus himself was on one too.
Thus, he was quite concerned about the repercussions this experiment would bring.
"The moment a monster like that reaches near the holy city, things will get noisy there for sure."
"Of course. If luck is bad, the failure might even arrive at the holy city."
"You knew and deliberately let it loose?"
Despite Leintus's worries, the doctor remained nonchalant, wearing a smile.
"Well, if they pray fervently to their beloved god, nothing will happen, right?"
Creak, creak-.
The doctor's hands busily pulled the chimera's biological levers.
The jolting chimera's speed gradually slowed.
Atop the shaking 'Bug', Leintus continued.
"It's not just the Order. The Empire itself must be in an uproar. They might even form another pursuit squad to kill you this time—."
Old memories flooded Leintus's mind.
Begerton Antares was a fairly infamous wanted man even in the Empire.
The number of knights who had stepped up to slay him wasn't small.
Though their ends were uniformly tragic.
And this incident might prompt the Order to move alongside the Empire's pursuers.
"It wasn't just something to call a mere 'taboo'. Was there really value in this experiment drawing so much attention?"
Thus, Leintus asked Begerton.
The reason for actions on a scale unlike his past experiments—.
The reason Begerton Antares risked drawing the eyes of factions with such recklessness—.
It was a probing question.
"Yes. There was."
Nod-.
Hearing it, the doctor immediately nodded toward Leintus in affirmation.
"You saw it yourself with this incident, Leintus."
"What did I see? That summoning a monster from the outside world failed?"
Kieeeek-.
A cry erupted from the chimera below the doctor.
But the doctor remained composed, merely stomping on the chimera's back with his foot.
"To perform, you have to do it flashily. That way, even in failure, you can scrounge some scraps."
"What nonsense is that?"
"Those involved with this world's secrets are all fickle. Do you know how hard it is to catch their eye?"
The doctor, leaning on the railing, curled his lips upward.
Leintus's eyes stared blankly at him.
An incomprehensible answer.
As always, his exchange with the doctor eluded Leintus's understanding.
"But don't worry. This time, we've definitely caught their attention."
Yet, for some reason.
The doctor seemed even more confident than usual.
Leintus's eyes regarded the mad mage.
Today's doctor was, as ever—.
An existence difficult for Leintus to comprehend.
Hoo-.
Leintus sighed and turned his gaze away.
He decided to trust the doctor one last time.
As usual, of course.