344. Rin. I Challenge You to a Duel
344. Rin. I Challenge You to a Duel
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"...Ugh."
As the knight clutching his own throat let out a deep groan and collapsed to the ground as if crumbling away, Serin realized she had already killed more than half of the knights.
Now only three high knights remained.
Their movements were endlessly cautious, and they showed no sign of rashly approaching her.
"......"
Glancing around, the surroundings were so utterly devastated that she wondered if such carnage was even possible.
Hacked and sliced corpse fragments lay scattered everywhere, and pools of dark red blood had formed here and there, adding more crimson to the gruesome space.
'I killed quite a lot.'
I consciously held back from saying it aloud as I let out a small breath.
The sensation of slaughter I'd felt just moments ago—the feeling of roaming the battlefield as if carrying out a massacre—had seized me like a drug.
My heart had pounded violently, as if someone had forcibly spurred it on, and I'd felt an undeniable rush from slaughtering rebels who weren't even powerful knights.
Euphoria, pleasure, enjoyment.
What should I call it? No, perhaps I should ask not what it was, but how to speak of it.
I couldn't define it in words. But one thing was certain: in that moment, I could not deny that I had enjoyed the act itself. And when I belatedly realized that all of it—that version of myself—must have gone out on stream, I unconsciously stopped moving.
In my memory. Like the giant out of myth that had crumbled a castle wall like a sandcastle. My heart slowly, slowly sank, and by now it had returned to its usual state.
The heart that had beaten faster than usual now seemed to beat slowly instead, gradually allowing me to properly take in the scene around me.
——!!
Then, at a short distance away, a massive golden light flared and caught my eye, and I realized Sua had begun her counterattack.
'Seems early.'
I had experienced Sua's Awakening Skill once before, so I knew what kind of technique it was, but I didn't remember the exact timing.
Still, recalling how Sua had unleashed her Awakening Skill at full power against me, it definitely felt early compared to that.
At the end of the golden light surging forth as if bursting outward, a pillar of blue light shot up and directly opposed the gold, and I kicked off the ground.
'...Sua's in danger.'
Even at a distance, the difference in power was obvious.
Watching the golden light fail to engulf Zernati in a single stroke, I could only realize it at once.
Sua's Awakening Skill wouldn't work.
Even amid my thoughts, my gaze unconsciously turned.
"..."
Right before me, countless blue stars sparkled in the empty air.
Below them, the figures of three knights each raising their swords. The moment I realized they had used a technique, I felt the end was approaching.
"Moon Princess."
I deliberately spoke aloud as I activated the skill.
The moonlight that now felt familiar wrapped warmly around me, and I felt new power surging through my entire body.
A power carrying a mighty and destructive force. As the power once held by the woman who had risen to the position of Second Only to One, Above Ten Thousand as a Dancer welled up, it made me feel in my very being how different I was from who I'd been in Black Ark.
"That appearance... what in the world?"
"All of you, give it everything!"
"Don't hesitate!"
The knights' expressions revealed their individual emotions—shock, horror, resolve. But as the blue-star-like energies soon began to gather into a single point, I raised the hand gripping the Crescent-Moon Weight.
HUMMMMMM!!
Before long, the gathered blue light churned fiercely enough to be visible to the naked eye, forming the shape of a massive blue sphere. The atmosphere around the blue sphere warped violently, and with a low hum, strange energy whirled around the sphere at its center.
Staring at it, several words suddenly came to mind.
'A mass of concentrated energy, a sphere of amplification. Mana convergence.'
There were many names for the blue sphere, but the principle itself—gathering the power of many and firing it—was simple.
Immediately after, as the three knights thrust their swords toward me, the blue sphere surged forward as well. Watching it rush in as if devouring space, I unconsciously saw beyond it.
The knights' faces, filled with faith, unease, and worry.
Seeing them like that, I suddenly remembered the past.
'How did I counter it back then?'
The rebel leader. That time when I had set out on a journey to personally purge Zernati. The memory of receiving the knights' combined attack just like now came back vividly.
And the countermeasure I had used against this technique back then was...
"...Pfft."
A laugh escaped before I knew it.
The Crescent-Moon Weight had already risen high into the air, and as my gaze was drawn to the pure white, beautiful moonlight suffusing the weapon, the answer came to me.
'Dance of Monstrous Strength and Chaos.'
Back then, I had crushed that blue sphere with a technique I could no longer use, with my full power. But now, having begun to diverge from the past, I activated a completely different technique.
—Moonlit Mirror of All Under Heaven.
A massive light burst forth from the Crescent-Moon Weight that had risen into the air, and soon began to dye the entire space in moonlight.
Even the blue sphere surging toward me, laden with immense power, was no exception.
The moonlight that stole away every color of the world. It devoured color as if indulging in pure greed.
It was as if.
As if only it alone.
Could illuminate the world—flaunting its light brilliantly.
Watching the knights' expressions exposed to the moonlight shift in real time into despondency and despair, I slowly launched my body forward.
Once the blue sphere seemed to have completely lost its power under the Moonlit Mirror of All Under Heaven, I yanked the cord connected to the Crescent-Moon Weight and retrieved it.
Then, the world quickly began to regain its original colors.
Tap.
As I landed lightly in front of the knights with the retrieved Crescent-Moon Weight, their state became even more starkly visible.
The knights had lost their will to fight. They instinctively raised their swords, but showed no fighting spirit whatsoever.
So I simply passed by them lightly, swinging my hand.
As if no technique was needed at all, with just a light gesture, the three knights exposed openings far too easily.
Thud. Thud.
Leaving the knights' bodies collapsing powerlessly behind me, I turned my gaze.
A space still some distance away—the only place that had not lost its color even under the Moonlit Mirror of All Under Heaven.
The fiercely resisting golden and blue energies locked in a contest of strength. Watching the golden light gradually fading among them, I moved without hesitation.
THOOM!
As the ground I kicked with great force caved in, I launched my body high into the sky and spun.
—Single Kick.
Immediately after, with the sound of the space I kicked bursting, I leaped again swiftly.
My agility in Moon Princess state was certainly lower than in my base Dancer state, but I had immense power to compensate for it.
As the distance rapidly shrank, I swung the Crescent-Moon Weight high into the air toward the space where the forces still clashed, and put strong force into my left hand gripping the cord connected to it.
Skreeeek!
The cord connected to the Crescent-Moon Weight pulled taut, and the weapon descended rapidly the moment it rose, naturally activating a technique.
—Moonlight Reflection Below.
As the Crescent-Moon Weight high in the air absorbed the moonlight, a vast glow soon spread from it, brightly illuminating the ground.
The blue barrage surging forth as if to devour the golden energy it clashed against.
The line of moonlight that split the space between those two forces clean in half scattered overwhelming light and began to erase the energies it touched.
Immediately after, as the three lights annihilated each other and scattered, I slowly descended to the ground and saw Sua staring at me blankly.
"...Serin?"
At Sua's slightly startled expression, a laugh unconsciously slipped out as I examined Sua's appearance.
Sua looked worse than I had expected.
As if she'd tumbled hard across the ground, Sua's golden hair was a complete mess, and even her beautiful armor was cracked here and there.
It seemed Zernati had driven Sua harder than I had thought.
"You held on well."
And somehow, I felt I should say that, so I did. Sua blinked, then hastily shook her head.
"No. I didn't... hold on well at all."
Then, with her eyes growing slightly misty, Sua averted her gaze, and I turned my attention to Zernati.
Contrary to my expectation that he would attack the moment I landed, Zernati made no particular move.
Even now, meeting my gaze, Zernati stared at me intently without raising his sword. The knight's behavior was unfamiliar, yet I unconsciously felt I knew the reason.
"Is this appearance of mine fascinating to you?"
I deliberately tilted my head and asked in a friendly tone. As expected. No, beyond expectation, Zernati's expression hardened greatly.
A laugh unconsciously slipped out, and I quite liked that.
I still couldn't decide how to think of the existence called Zernati standing before me. But the situation itself was funny.
Even seeing me like that, Zernati chewed his lips as if grinding his teeth, then slowly opened his mouth.
"The knights...?"
At that voice, cold enough to chill the bone, I calmly moved my lips.
"Who knows. I think you'd know the outcome without me spelling it out."
"Is that so."
"It is."
Exchanging predetermined answers, I took in Zernati's appearance anew.
The figure of a knight clad entirely in silver. One who valued chivalry and prized his reputation at all times.
If there were an ideal knight straight out of a fairy tale, then yes, that would surely describe him.
And precisely because of that, I utterly despised him.
A person who spouted idealism in every situation was, to me—someone who had stared at the harshest reality—simply a revolting existence.
Those two eyes meeting my gaze even now.
The green eyes shining as if holding verdure were intense to the point of being bloodshot, glaring at me as if to kill me...
But why was it.
That sight brought me even a small sense of satisfaction.
Sometimes for various reasons, sometimes due to grueling schedules, and in the end, due to a clash of values.
At all times, the knight called Zernati had evoked disgust in me.
A being who nitpicked at every little thing and craved attention. Whether seen from afar or up close, it ultimately only stirred irritation.
And so, at the end, I had personally volunteered for the purge of the rebels.
Even though Princess Cecilia had desperately tried to dissuade me, I had set out on the journey, and at its end, I had killed him.
And that. Would be no different now in this Another World.
"Rin. I challenge you to a duel."
Just as a hollow laugh escaped at Zernati's sudden duel challenge—
Ding!
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