A Knight's Oath (6)
Just receiving the Saintess's protection was enough to change their morale.
They fell and rose, fell and rose again. The knights charged forward to capture the terrorist who was destroying the peace.
Their opponent was strong. He was facing dozens of knights alone. Every swing of his greatsword sent a fierce blast of heat that shoved them back.
Agnian's flames were blocked by the Saintess's barrier. They felt the momentary heat, but their armor did not melt. Their stamina overflowed. Adrenaline surged through them; they felt no fatigue. With the Saintess's healing magic layered on top, they were practically invincible.
But...
"Haa... haa..."
The longer the fight dragged on, the greater the burden on Ariel. Maintaining both protective and healing magic on dozens of knights at once required a considerable amount of divine power. She could feel it being steadily drained from her body. Even with her vast reserves, continuously sustaining high-tier divine magic was exhausting.
Agnian's attacks were not something basic protective magic could stop. The flying fireballs packed the power of roughly a fifteenth-rank mage. To block them, Ariel had to continuously cast substantial divine magic of at least high-priest level or higher.
It was a war of attrition. Whichever side ran out of strength first would lose.
This was the first time she had cast divine magic in rapid succession in the middle of combat. It demanded intense concentration. Even a moment's distraction could cost a knight his life.
Still, she could keep fighting for quite a while yet. Her divine power was being drained and her heart pounded rapidly, but that was all. As long as no massive attack came...
The moment Ariel thought that, Agnian shook his head as if fed up.
"How you struggle. Even with the Saintess's protection, you're nothing but insects."
The knights, now familiar with his attack patterns, dodged the flying flames and closed in on Agnian.
"Attack all at once!"
Agnian gripped his greatsword with both hands and slashed the empty air in a wide arc.
—Whoosh!!
The air was cleaved. A shimmering wound, like heat haze, flickered in the empty air. It lasted only an instant, and the only one who saw it was Lowen.
Flames churned from the wound as if blood were pouring out, then erupted like a dragon's breath and engulfed the knights.
—KRAAAAAASH!!
Compared to every attack so far, even the sound was different. It wasn't just the appearance of a dragon's breath — the sound was just as similar. The breath shot out in a straight line and swept through the knights. Their armor melted completely. Thanks to the Saintess's protective and healing magic, they kept their lives, but the severe burns left them unable to fight.
"I believe I made myself clear."
Agnian slashed the air once more.
—KRAAAAAASH!!
This time the knights on the other side were swept away. The result was the same. Armor melted, severe burns, combat-incapable.
"That the Saintess will die here today, without fail..."
In an instant, half their forces had been wiped out.
Ariel immediately began preparing a higher-tier divine spell.
"Father of Radiance, Lord of Light, this lamb prays, borrowing Your holy power..."
The higher the tier of divine magic, the longer the prayer. By the time she finished the full prayer and raised a sturdier barrier, the remaining knights numbered less than a quarter of what they had been.
"Choose."
Agnian looked at Ariel.
"End your own life right there, and I will spare every last one of these men."
"That's a lie."
Ariel's golden eyes clearly saw through Agnian's lie. It was a lie. A blatant, barefaced lie. Agnian intended to burn everyone here — no, the entire Rest Town.
"If this were the old me, I would have tried to persuade you."
Ariel clenched her rosary tightly.
"But I'm different now. You who create innocent victims are evil. And evil cannot be forgiven."
At Ariel's words, the flames wrapping Agnian flared even larger.
"Did you just... call me evil?"
His voice came through clenched teeth. The blazing flames trembled as if shaking with rage. Visible fury turned black and pooled beneath Agnian's feet.
"Saintess, I ask you. Do you know how this city came to be?"
Ariel tilted her head.
"It was built with the blood of the Flame Lizard Tribe, cut down by the Empire's swords."
"What?"
Agnian raised his voice so everyone could hear.
"You said creating innocent victims is evil? Then the Empire that drove out the innocent Flame Lizard Tribe and seized this land is evil as well! And you, who pray for that Empire and its people — you are evil too!"
—Bang!
A brick flew through the air, struck Agnian's flames, and exploded.
"Don't shout. You'll startle our Saintess."
Lowen picked up a brick rolling on the ground and threw it at Agnian.
—Bang!
It exploded just the same.
"I thought you'd just stand there watching. Planning to step in yourself now?"
The eyes that had been glaring at Ariel shifted to Lowen.
"I'd have preferred to just cheer from the sidelines, but..."
Lowen looked around. More than half the knights who had been fighting so bravely moments ago had been wiped out. A flame barrier still ringed the plaza, and reinforcements couldn't get through because of it. In other words, just standing around watching meant death.
"The Flame Lizard Tribe, was it?"
Lowen calmly regarded Agnian. Now that he heard it was the Flame Lizard Tribe, the man's features began to make sense. Red hair, blood-red eyes — a descendant of the Flame Lizard Tribe bloodline as Lowen knew it.
"You claim your tribe was innocent, but you've got the history wrong."
"Wrong history?"
Lowen explained it simply.
The Flame Lizard Tribe losing their land to the Empire was not an innocent sacrifice. The Empire had recognized the Flame Lizard Tribe's land as independently existing even within imperial territory. But the Flame Lizard Tribe had stabbed the Empire in the back instead. When drought left them short of food, they raided the surrounding villages, seized grain, and killed imperial citizens. The Empire was enraged and led its knights to subjugate the Flame Lizard Tribe. Those who resisted to the end were deemed a threat and killed; those who surrendered were accepted as imperial citizens.
This was the past as Lowen knew it, and as it was recorded in the history books.
"Don't lie! Those records are clearly lies written by the Empire!"
From his impoverished childhood, Agnian had heard about the Flame Lizard Tribe from his parents every day. The Flame Lizard Tribe had been unjustly robbed of their land by the Empire. The Flame Lizard Tribe must be revived. The Flame Lizard Tribe must reclaim their land and destroy the Empire.
On top of that, he had met that woman — the leader of the Demon Cult. Claiming it held the past within it, she had handed him a relic of the Flame Lizard Tribe. And through that relic, Agnian had been able to see the wretched past.
"What historians hate most is falsehood."
They might speculate, but recording a false history is something historians cannot tolerate themselves.
"Even if what you say were true, the Empire would have no reason to hide it."
An empire that started as a small nation and grew by conquering its neighbors would have proudly recorded it as a previous emperor's achievement. In fact, if you look up the records of past emperors, the wars they started and the victories they won are detailed as if boasting about them.
"And as I understand it, the Empire provided the Flame Lizard Tribe with every possible convenience."
"Shut up."
"I don't know who taught you history, but stop this pointless nonsense."
His parents couldn't have lied. The vivid past he had seen in the relic couldn't be false either. The lies were the damned words spilling from that priest's three-inch tongue.
"Seems it's already too late..."
Lowen turned his head to look at Ariel.
"Saintess, would you cast a protective spell on me as well?"
"Yes!"
He didn't know what past Agnian carried or what whispers had led him astray. Nor did he want to know, or need to. Lowen was not kind enough to pity a poor fool who'd been deceived. He simply fought to get out of this bothersome situation.
Ariel's barrier wrapped around Lowen's body.
"Come. Before I take the Saintess's head, I'll chew you up first!"
Agnian declared through grinding teeth.
I'd better pray this year passes quickly...
If this kind of thing happened every time they went somewhere, his body wouldn't last.
Lowen ran to land a hit on Agnian. Fireballs flew toward his face. He lightly dodged the attacks with the same movements he'd shown in the forest. He dove into the net of fire and charged toward his target, dodging every indiscriminate attack flying at him and putting power into his fist.
—KRAAAAAASH!!
A breath attack. Wide-ranging but linear. He had already thought of how to dodge it. Just dodge sideways quickly before it hits. Easier said than done — it was more like flinging his body sideways.
Having dodged the breath, Lowen immediately got up and ran. He was getting closer. Closer and closer. The distance closed until only a few steps remained.
Agnian swung his greatsword. Lowen dodged that crude blade by slamming to a sudden stop, then drove into the wide-open gap and drove his fist into Agnian's face.
—Thud!
The armor of flame performed its defensive role well enough, but it wasn't hard. Normally, just getting close would have turned his fist into a charred lump. Because of Ariel's barrier, Lowen was able to land a solid hit on Agnian.
"Guh!!"
Agnian staggered. Before he could right his stance, Lowen's attacks poured down.
Monsters had fundamentally different defenses, so beating them down with fists was impossible. But his opponent was human. That was Lowen's specialty, you could say. He used magic, sure, but dodging it was enough.
—Thwack!
He slammed Agnian's abdomen. Agnian's body lifted slightly, then barely recovered its balance.
"Fire is still fire, I suppose..."
Lowen looked at the hand that had struck Agnian's abdomen. A mild burn had peeled the skin, and blood was flowing. Even with Ariel's barrier, thrusting a hand directly into the flames was a different level of heat.
"Let's see..."
Agnian slammed the tip of his greatsword into the ground with a crash.
—Rumble rumble rumble!
The ground shook. The paving stones clattered and heaved. An eerie sense of dread crawled over Ariel's skin and spread through her entire body.
"Ah, this is dangerous...!"
Ariel rapidly recited a prayer. It was a longer prayer than any divine magic she had used so far.
"Let's see if you can dodge this one too."
Hot heat seethed up through the cracking paving stones. The flame curtain ringing the plaza churned. The omen of dread exploded in the instant of a single breath.
—KWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!
A massive pillar of fire shot up high enough to burn the moon from the night sky.
A pillar of fire that engulfed the entire plaza. Was this what it felt like to stand before a great dragon's maw and take its breath?
When that ferocious attack subsided, the plaza was a wreck. The fountain that had shared Rest Town's history was gone. The once-solid ground had caved in, leaving a massive crater.
"Hngh, haa... huuh..."
Ariel clutched her chest and let out a groan. For ten seconds she had used the Saintess's barrier on every person in the plaza, including the combat-incapable knights. Breaking and remaking, breaking and remaking — she had spent more than half her divine power in one go to protect them all.
"Ugh... uuuh..."
Dying groans rose from all directions. "Protecting them" only meant she had kept them from being burned by the fire pillar. When the ground caved in, her concentration faltered, and she couldn't fully block that impact as well.
A knight buried under rubble. A knight whose legs were bent at grotesque angles. Every knight who had fought so bravely had fallen.
The one silver lining was that Ariel herself was relatively unharmed. Aside from the backlash of using a vast amount of divine power at once — making it hard to breathe and difficult to keep her body upright — she had no major external injuries.
"Cough...! Haaa..."
Agnian coughed up blood. Wielding hastily constructed power was eating away at his own life.
"So... you couldn't dodge this one... heh..."
With a thin, wheezing breath, Agnian looked at Lowen. Lowen was barely managing to stay on his feet. Having taken the attack at the center of the fire pillar, his entire body was burned — skin charred, blood running down.
This hurts like hell...
Taking wounds like this was the first time since shortly after joining the knight order, when he'd been captured and tortured by an underworld count.
Lowen glared at Agnian. The flames surrounding Agnian had weakened. Right now he could take the man down easily enough — but he didn't have the strength. He couldn't move his body. He was somehow still standing, but every movement made his torn skin scream.
—Step. Step.
Agnian dragged his greatsword along the ground as he approached Lowen.
"Move. And fight."
Agnian raised his greatsword high.
"If you can't move, then die."
He swung the greatsword.
—Slash!
Blood sprayed. Lowen's pupils dilated.
"...My body just moved on its own..."
Ariel looked at Lowen with a sheepish smile. She had thrown her body to protect him. She had tried to use protective magic, but the backlash from using so much divine power left her unable to cast.
"...Sorry for being so stupid..."
And Ariel collapsed.
"Ha, hahaha!"
Agnian laughed loudly. Looking at the long wound stretched across Ariel's back, watching the blood spread across her black nun's habit, he sneered.
"Ghk!"
Lowen kicked Agnian's knee. As the man's body staggered and fell, Lowen scooped Ariel up and put distance between them.
"..."
Thankfully, she was still breathing. The tip of the greatsword had only cut across her back — not a deep wound. The divine blessing dwelling in her stigmata automatically used healing magic.
"This stupid Saintess..."
Lowen looked at the sword lying nearby. He had resolved never to take up a sword again. Even if he did, he had sworn its tip would never point at a person.
But...
Because of this stupid Saintess. Because of the Saintess who burned her heart to protect the knights. Because of the reckless Saintess who threw her slender body in front of a greatsword.
Lowen picked up the sword.
"...You really know how to put a man in a difficult position."
Lowen took Ariel's hand and dropped to one knee.
"I will take up the sword to protect you."
A knight who had laid down his own sword taking it up again was a shameful act, he thought, but... She liked lewd things. She liked afternoon naps. She liked sweet desserts. To protect this bundle of desires, this stupid Saintess — he would gladly do something shameful.
Lowen pressed his lips to the back of Ariel's hand.