Chapter 303
Chapter 303
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 303
Chapter Title: Ways to Confront Death (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Night had deepened.
Looking up at the sky, stars spilled a faint light. The constellations formed by connecting star to star matched exactly what Sara had seen in her dream.
The confirmed future was drawing near.
The time pointed to by the prophecy was around dawn, so less than half a day remained until the final battle. Amid it all, they stood on the snowfield, silently carrying out only what they alone could do.
"God wills it, here..."
Sara recited the prayer she had memorized her entire life.
She no longer placed blind faith in the gods, nor did she consider the beings above the heavens perfect. Even so, she offered her prayer.
Not to the god of the heavens, but to the man named Kyle Toben whom she believed in. Sara recited the prayer.
Miracles should not follow faithless prayers.
Yet the god of the heavens graciously answered Sara's prayer. A brilliant radiance surged like waves from Sara at its center. The overflowing light seeped into Kyle's body.
Sara repeated this several times.
Hearing the voice reciting the prayer, Raniel approached Kyle's side.
"Kyle."
The wind blew.
Raniel's ash-gray hair fluttered in the incoming breeze.
"One thing I want to say."
"What is it?"
"Whether you think of me as Raniel or not, it doesn't matter anymore. We're already here, and you're in a situation where you have to cooperate with me."
Kyle said nothing.
Raniel continued.
"Still, if you see me even a little as Raniel... just one thing."
Raniel swallowed once and opened her mouth.
"I know you well."
Not the strongest hero, Kyle.
The boy, Kyle, who had dreamed of being a hero.
"I thought I knew you well."
Kyle turned his head to look at Raniel.
His bluish eyes were calmly settled. His voice was the same. There was no lightness as usual. No hostility toward Kyle could be felt in his voice.
"So, I think I made a mistake."
"......"
"I expected too much from you. I thought you could do it. I was convinced that you could truly become a hero."
Raniel let out a chuckle.
"After seeing how hard it is to live by ideals, how treacherous that path is... I realized I was too harsh on you."
She had harbored doubts all along.
But she had refused to accept that she might be wrong. She had thought she always had to be right.
However, that wasn't the case.
She had heard Destel's words. She had witnessed Galahal's end.
At that end, Raniel realized it. That her way was wrong. That there might have been a better way. When she realized that, Raniel regretted it.
"There might have been a better way."
A hypothetical future.
Imagining that future was meaningless.
Even so, Raniel dared to envision it.
"So."
Raniel said.
"This is a request."
"...A request?"
"A request, not a demand."
Raniel smiled.
"Do your best. Against Ganikalt, if the worst happens, hold on. I'll find a way somehow. The only one who can withstand that monster is you."
Knowing it was an unreasonable request, Raniel smiled.
"Of course, I'm not saying go alone."
She patted the back of her hand.
"Whatever it takes, I won't let you die."
"Planning to burn your lifespan too?"
"If necessary."
Kyle spat out curtly.
"Don't make any deals."
He gripped the hilt tightly.
"There won't be any need."
"Oh."
"I have my own ways. You're not the only one who's been worrying."
"I see."
Kyle stepped forward, gripping the holy sword.
"Raniel wasn't wrong."
As he stepped, Kyle said.
"He was always right. Always noble, always perfect. I have no intention of doubting what he did. It's a fact that he was right."
Kyle didn't look back.
"The one who was wrong was me."
"......"
"I was lacking. I couldn't follow him. I wasn't a perfect human like Raniel. I couldn't become him."
Thus.
"I couldn't endure it."
He didn't say what he couldn't endure.
He simply raised the holy sword.
"That's all."
The holy sword shone platinum.
"No matter how much time passes... it must be set right someday. Even if not today, eventually. I have that responsibility."
Drawing the holy sword wrapped in starlight, Kyle smiled.
"I'll say sorry then."
Raniel also chuckled and walked following Kyle's footprints in the snowfield. Standing beside Kyle, she pulled off her gloves with a stretch.
"Yeah."
The deep night was ending.
The sun rose beyond the horizon. Sunlight slanted across the snowfield, and wind blew from beyond the horizon.
A single gust of wind.
"It's coming."
A wind carrying a rotten stench.
"Seems like it."
A wind symbolizing death.
With that single gust, the horizon split. Snowflakes scattered with a grating sound. Amid the flying snow, something revealed its form.
A massive build.
A right arm woven from countless lives.
A left arm symbolizing human pride.
A swordsman who was once a hero, once the strongest sword saint, but now an apostle of shadow. The strongest swordsman, who twisted even providence itself, appeared here.
Death's sword, Ganikalt.
The most feared calamity.
Death arrived with the dawn. As if boasting its existence, death approached this place with slow steps. Though at a considerable distance, death ignored it, stimulating humanity's primal fear.
It was frightening.
Insanely frightening.
Her limbs trembled, on the verge of collapsing right then.
Yet none of those standing here now did so. The saintess slammed her staff down, reinforcing the circuits in the area. The divine archer nocked her arrow at death. The hero assumed his stance with the holy sword gripped.
"Hey, Kyle."
And.
"Here we go."
The sage clapped her hands sharply.
Mana bloomed between her fingers. An amount of mana unbelievable for one human filled the area.
Accumulated and accumulated.
The sage pressed her palms to the circuits engraved in the snowfield. The circuits reacted to her mana. The heat they drew evaporated the snow piled on the circuits in an instant.
Siiiiizzle!
A sound of something burning.
Rising heat and surging mana.
Connected to hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of circuits, the sage curled her lips and chanted a single word.
"Ignite."
The symbol of the Ashen Mage, Raniel.
Like the starter incantation for all spells.
The moment one spell seeped into the first circuit.
Fwoooooooosh!
A flash fiercer than the rising sun whitened the entire snowfield.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ 2.
The evacuation procession continued.
The column fleeing death had already reached the northern edge, the boundary line. Temporary shelters were set up there. At sunrise, they would have to head a bit farther.
The knights aiding the evacuation suddenly looked toward the rising sun. Far away, the hero and his party were said to be standing against death?
As such thoughts crossed their minds.
Flash.
The knight saw a brilliant flash shooting into the sky. It was like a pillar of light. Stronger than the faint sunlight cast by the rising sun, pushing it aside.
What in the world?
The question was brief. Then, boom, the ground shook.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "...Belnoa, look at that."
"I see it."
Cloe stared blankly beyond the horizon.
Far from here, at the northern opposite end, Kennel Snowfield. A massive pillar of light had risen there. Cloe could easily tell it was a mass of mana.
Never seen a spell of that scale.
What in the world was about to happen?
At that moment, like branches extending, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of circuits bloomed from the light pillar's center. They blossomed simultaneously. What formed was a giant tree. A shape like a mage tower.
An unprecedented super-large-scale magic.
Only one human could produce something like that.
"...Raniel van Trias."
The sage, Raniel van Trias.
Cloe and Belnoa pictured the great mage who would be there now. They couldn't even dare predict the result that light pillar would bring. The two simply stared, entranced, absorbing the majestic sight.
And the circuits emitted a flash.
Ruuuuumble!
A blizzard swept even to this distant place.
The ground shook, and clothes flapped wildly in the sudden wind. Those who felt the shaking, who saw the light pillar, naturally guessed.
The resistance had begun.
To resist death, those at humanity's pinnacle were confronting the calamity there.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ 3.
The light pillar soaring high into the sky resembled a mage tower.
A tower humanity had piled up to reach the heavens.
A tower containing the essence of the magical path and magical scholarship walked by generations of dozens, hundreds of mages. The light pillar created by the one mage standing here now was no different.
To confront the calamity.
To make the impossible possible.
Raniel van Trias revealed everything she had.
The path she had walked her entire life, everything she had accumulated, thus everything as a wizard. The light pillar revealed here was Raniel's magical path itself.
Arrogant.
Brutal.
Messy and inconsistent.
She had used everything available.
The light pillar emitted light.
The circuits engraved into the ground over the past month climbed the light pillar into the sky. Using the blue sky as a mirror, the circuits reflected each other.
Creak, creeeak.
The vast mana and tens of thousands of circuits even birthed spatial distortions. The sky groaned. The space enveloping the light pillar began to warp. And Raniel snapped her fingers.
Tick, a small flame ignited.
The flame spread along the light pillar.
A dizzying number of circuits lit up simultaneously. With an instant flash, a roar swept through, and the tearing thunderclap erased even sound.
—————!
The ground shook. Snow erupted.
A blizzard soaring high into the sky blocked vision. Within the blizzard, spells collided with spells, creating minor explosions. All of it targeted death.
To block the approaching death, the sage had staked everything.
"Prepare."
But the sage knew.
"It's coming soon."
That this alone wasn't enough.
That this was merely a signal flare announcing the start.
Raniel van Trias knew it well.
"Duck down."
And the hero.
"I'll cut it down."
He stepped forward and grabbed Raniel's nape. At the same time, a chilling sound echoed from beyond the blizzard.
Shing.
The sound of a sword swinging.
Slash.
A following cleave.
A single line was drawn across the towering blizzard. That was the end. All spells, the flames and flashes they created, everything was severed. All returned as if it had never happened.
By a single sword stroke.
Raniel felt a chill seeing the few strands of her severed hair. But she didn't question this absurd situation.
'That's what a calamity is.'
She hadn't thought something like this could block death. This was merely preliminary work. Raniel stared wide-eyed beyond the blizzard.
Rustle.
The bisected blizzard dispersed.
Death emerged, parting the scattering blizzard.
Despite slamming a super-large-scale spell that erased the area without trace, Ganikalt's body bore not even a single scorch mark.
Step.
Death halted at a slight distance.
He slowly raised his sword.
"I ask."
The sword tip pointed at Kyle Toben.
"Are you a swordsman?"
Death asked.
Before the question, Kyle raised his sword.
"Kyle Toben."
Kyle said.
"I am the hero."
He took one step forward.
The spells that swept the area hadn't affected Ganikalt, but they had succeeded in altering the terrain. The changed terrain resembled a canyon. This terrain was all too familiar to Kyle Toben.
'Go, Kyle.'
When he had severed the black dragon's neck.
'I'll collapse the canyon. Buy me time.'
During the rematch with Ganikalt.
'It's different from where I learned the sword, but the environment is similar. Want to teach you swordsmanship here in this canyon. Alright?'
When learning the sword from the sword transcendent, Kuntel.
'Of course.'
Kyle had stood in a canyon like this.
Facing his opponent between split cliffs, Kyle had always pointed his sword. He would do the same now.
Splash.
Kyle began running, stepping on the near-vertical incline. He ran, stepping from split wall to wall. Stars dwelled in Kyle's body, accelerating his movements.
"God wills it, blessings upon the hero."
Sara's blessing layered onto Kyle's body.
Screeeeech!
Moonlight arrows traced eerie trajectories following Kyle's charge, dragging clusters of light.
Claaang!
Countless chains rattled, linking the path between canyons toward Ganikalt. Kyle dashed across the chains.
"Is that so."
And death's sword.
"The swordsman I faced back then."
Tossed the sword into the air.
It wasn't a monster's hand that caught the sword spinning in empty air. Ganikalt gripped it with his left hand. The aura cloaking death changed in an instant.
"Show your pride, slave of the stars."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇