Chapter 92
Translator: crow
Chapter Title: A Good Story
The history of Haken Wert was utterly unremarkable. No, there wasn't even much of a history to speak of in the first place.
Tugui himself would probably end up as both the founding leader and the final one.
At first, there hadn't been any intention of forming a group. He simply lived as he pleased because the world didn't sit right with him, and before long, people started gathering around him.
Ekaterina had joined Haken Wert before she'd even reached double digits in age.
He could still vaguely recall the venom burning in that young child's eyes.
Nameless. Right, his first encounter with that ridiculous swordsman who called himself Nameless had been a duel to the death.
Tugui had won, and in response, Nameless had thrown himself into Haken Wert, declaring himself a subordinate.
He vaguely remembered those he'd met shortly after beginning his wanderings through the world. Most of them were dead now. Up until recently, only Ekaterina and Nameless had remained.
But now they were all gone.
"I'd vaguely thought a day like this might come."
Blood-red energy bubbled fiercely in his clenched fist. The devil's power, obtained at the cost of Ekaterina's soul, surged through his body like it was about to burst him apart.
Lilith. The queen of the succubi, was it? He had a sense of how to handle her power of enchantment, but he had no need for it.
He simply pressed his tightly clenched fists against his waist.
"I'll win. This time too. Just like always."
Fwoosh—!
The air tore apart as Tugui's body closed the distance to Enoch in an instant. Enoch's eyes widened. He hurriedly raised his hand to block, but he was a fraction too slow.
Boom—!
Tugui's fist glanced upward, throwing Enoch off-balance. Immediately, Tugui's other hand shot forward.
[Eri.]
A sword jutted from Enoch's chest, gripped in Eri's jaws as it swung.
At the same time, Tsukiyo and the marquis moved as well.
Tsukiyo's claws sharpened to a razor's edge, while blue sword aura blazed along the marquis's blade.
"Sss..."
Tugui exhaled, his crimson eyes scanning everything. The incoming trajectories. And even the ghostly figure observing from afar.
*Annoying.*
He frowned and swung his hand. His left palm deflected Tsukiyo's forearm, while the index and middle fingers of his right hand caught the marquis's sword and halted it.
In one fluid motion, he launched himself into the air and spun. The momentum sent the two flying, and he whipped both feet toward Enoch.
Clang—!
Tugui's foot collided with the sword Eri had swung. Tugui's eyes met Enoch's.
Whirr—!
A violet ring spun, piercing through Tugui.
[Not bad?]
Enoch grinned darkly as he crooked the fingers of both hands. His claw-like talons traced erratic paths.
Tugui countered with his fists.
Fists and claws tangled. Tugui's crimson eyes and Enoch's piercing gaze endlessly analyzed each other's movements.
In this close-quarters clash, Enoch was at a disadvantage. Compared to Tugui—a top-tier grand master—Enoch had only recently ascended to that realm. It was only natural.
But he wasn't being overwhelmingly pushed back. With Tsukiyo and the marquis joining in, the fight evened out into a deadlock.
Tsukiyo's strength was particularly surprising.
"Tch."
Wherever Tugui twisted his body to evade, Tsukiyo's claws were already there.
She wielded both sorcery and martial arts. Tugui's unique eyes rendered her signature illusions useless, but that didn't change the fact that she was a powerhouse dubbed the Black Catastrophe.
This flow continued for about ten minutes.
[Got it.]
Enoch's eyes gleamed as he burrowed deep into Tugui's guard. Reflexively, Tugui drove his knee upward. As if he'd anticipated it, Enoch deflected the knee while gathering lightning in his grasp.
Tugui's eyes analyzed the lightning. And Enoch's piercing gaze analyzed Tugui's eyes.
[Not quite piercing gaze..., you see the flows, huh?]
Everything had its grain. If you could cut precisely along that grain, even the feeblest force could cleave anything.
But that grain flowed and shifted constantly, making it nearly impossible to sever by chance. Yet Tugui's eyes saw that flow.
Not the grain itself, but its flow. Seeing the flow of the grain inherent in all things meant seeing all things themselves.
That had to come at a heavy cost, but probably...
Crackle—!
Something like this was possible.
Enoch grinned darkly at the lightning that had vanished as if snuffed out. Tugui had severed its grain. The lightning's dissipation left an opening, but that was fine—someone else could cover it.
"Daddy!"
Tsukiyo rushed in and blocked the fist aimed at Enoch's abdomen.
Boom—!
Amid the violent shockwave, Enoch's eyes began to capture the flows.
And a versatile fighter like Enoch, seeing the flows, could do things like this.
Thud—!
Enoch's foot struck precisely at the grain of the earth. The ground shattered into fragments, infused with his power.
The earth plasmized, glowing violet. The Heavenly Slayer Thunder God Art converted the motion into an incantation, weaving a spell formula.
Rrrumble—!
Countless plasma thorns erupted, targeting Tugui's openings. Tugui's eyes darted frantically as he dodged and deflected them.
"...Impressive."
Tugui ground his teeth, watching Enoch grow rapidly mid-battle. At this rate, the balance would tip. He had to force an advance, no matter what.
Rrrrip—!
His muscles cracked like parched earth. Veins bulged grotesquely across his skin as red patterns began to etch themselves.
"Hup...!"
At the same time, he invoked Ekaterina's contract, offering his own soul to draw power from the devil.
He knew the power's usage intimately. He tapped his heel against the ground in a light, overlapping rhythm matching her footwork.
Shhhk—!
Iron chains unfurled, dominating the space like they owned it. Enoch tried to compress the space above his hand as he'd done with Ekaterina, but Tugui was no pushover.
Tugui's spatial control matched Enoch's, maintaining perfect equilibrium. In that state, he drew back his fist. Overflowing power concentrated into that single punch, making the space groan.
Screeech───────────
Enoch's eyes lit up as he watched. So that's your technique?
One mistake. And not even one on Tugui's part—it completely reversed the tide.
His piercing gaze, now capturing the flows, pierced through Tugui.
As Tugui thrust the fist he'd drawn back, shattering all space along its path,
[Mine Kampf.]
Adolf, a former member of Haken Wert he'd encountered before. The origin of that man's punches lay there.
And for Enoch, a known technique was just something to dismantle. As if toying with him, Enoch threw the same punch, clashing with Tugui's.
Fwoooosh─────────!!
The wind rustled softly. Enoch gave an awkward smile as he stared at Tugui's fist, halted at the tip of his nose.
[...Thanks for the chocolate.]
Enoch shook out his extended hand. Tugui's arm—the one that had collided with his fist—had vanished entirely.
'No way it was bait...'
He didn't know how Tugui had figured it out. But Tugui had nearly crushed Enoch's skull at the cost of one arm.
"Be a bit more careful next time. Though..., I doubt caution would help."
Tsukiyo, who had slipped behind Tugui unnoticed, withdrew her arm from his pierced chest. Tugui's stance crumbled, blood pouring from his mouth.
"Cough...!"
Staggering, Tugui plummeted from the air he'd been standing on, crashing into the ground.
After coughing a few times, he panted raggedly, gazing up at the blackened sky. Enoch's face overlapped above him. Their eyes met, and Tugui smiled faintly.
"...Do you believe in 'virtue rewarded, vice punished'?"
[Yeah.]
Enoch sheathed Jin-ah and let out a deep breath.
"Because the winner is the righteous one."
"Cough...! Then..., does this prove my villainy?"
"Who knows. Not my concern."
The good and evil the world arbitrarily upheld were mere facades built on necessity. True good and evil came down to one's own heart.
Whether Tugui was good or evil held no interest, so there was no need to dwell on it.
"Why ask suddenly? Any regrets?"
"...Maybe."
Tugui, who had reached toward the sky, instead pressed his lips to the back of his own hand.
"...Foolish, isn't it."
With that, Tugui's body crumbled to ash and scattered. In that fleeting moment, Enoch's piercing gaze caught something—a妖艳 smile from a devilish woman.
*
Enoch stretched his stiff body and looked up at the sky. More precisely, he stared intently at a certain point beneath it.
"So, what are you?"
Everything had its grain. Souls were no exception, so Enoch now had little trouble seeing them.
Tugui's eyes weren't superior to the piercing gaze overall—they seemed specialized for this.
[Curious?]
"A little? The shoe noises from the mansion—that was you, right?"
[Yeah. Idalian doesn't have the strength for that. I had to help, didn't I?]
The hazy ghostly woman giggled.
"You leaked info to the marquis too?"
[Right. Things were getting dull, so I lent a hand.]
"Why?"
[Because that side's more fun?]
The woman descended to the ground and fully materialized. The marquis and Tsukiyo flinched as they took in her appearance.
[Bad ends or happy ends—neither's bad. I thought the Haken Wert brats would be a nuisance, but they put on quite the show.]
The marquis took a mesmerized step forward as the woman spun in place.
"Did Idalian... resent me...?"
[Who knows? Never asked.]
The woman shrugged. The marquis bowed his head weakly. After a moment's thought, Enoch spoke.
"I might be able to help with that."
"Help with what...?"
"A conversation. With Idalian."
"I-Is that true...!?"
The marquis rushed over and seized Enoch's hand. Zeke Fryne, who had been watching quietly, hurried close and spoke urgently.
"E-Enoch. Is that for real? You can actually do that?"
"Yeah."
It would probably work. He'd estimated a fifty percent chance before, but seeing the flows had given him certainty.
[Oh! Wait, before that! Can't skip this! Out of order!]
The ghostly woman cut in, waving her hands wildly.
[Aren't you curious why Idalian died?]
"Was there some special reason...?"
At the marquis's question, the woman beamed and nodded.
[Yep! I was the one who took Idalian's soul!]