The Four Heavenly Kings: Kbalt (3)

Eluke watched the battle unfolding across the wasteland in silence. The Corpse Locusts that had swarmed the sky were all but gone now — the fruit of Breni's relentless barrage of flame magic. Down on the ground, the Clitia Vampire Zombie Legion was still numerous, but it had thinned considerably from what it had been at the start.

Their appearance remained every bit as viscerally disturbing as ever, but they were not particularly strong. Perhaps that was simply the limit of an insect-type monster. They lacked the intelligence to properly exploit a vampire's physical gifts.

The situation was a clear advantage. They were steadily advancing toward victory. And yet the real danger had not gone anywhere. Eluke frowned as she kept her eyes locked on Kbalt, who was still thrashing wildly, trying without pause to punch through her barrier.

He won't give up.

She could keep holding him like this. If she pushed herself, she could probably last several dozen hours without much trouble. But she had no good way to finish him off. Handing it over to Selen was no better — there was more than one Kbalt, and that made it far too dangerous. She was stuck either way. In the end, all she could do was wait for Liam to resolve it.

And that made her furious.

You bastard.

Just thinking about it again made the anger surge back up. He had promised he would always stay by her side. Looking at him now, it seemed any Clitia at all would have been good enough for him. Once affection broke, it did not mend easily. The fracture had already begun, and her heart kept drifting further away. She had even started regretting the choice she had made in the past. What if she went back? Liam's cold gaze had wounded her deeply enough to make her think such things.

You're all I have...

A change of heart affected Holy Power as well. Grief welled up in her so suddenly that the barrier began to shudder. The swarm of Kbalts did not miss the opening — they hammered the shield with redoubled force. She seized hold of herself a moment too late, and the trembling would not stop. Hairline cracks crept across the barrier. Eluke bit down hard on her lip.

If it collapsed now, the Hero's party would fall to Kbalt. And if that happened, this world's hope would be snuffed out for good.

A prayer offered up with everything she had. As if in answer, scorching Holy Power welled up from within her body. She poured the fresh power into the barrier at once, and the cracks halted; the shield steadied, then grew stronger than before — vastly more so. For the moment, she could breathe again. All of it was by the Sun's grace.

A noble voice resonated inside her mind. Eluke closed her eyes in reverence and folded her hands.

"I am sorry. I allowed myself to be shaken by something as paltry as affection."

"Please do not say such things."

Eluke nodded with fierce resolve.

"Even if I must burn this body to ash, I will see it done."

That precious voice cleared the clutter from her mind. Eluke opened her eyes, meaning to turn her full attention back to the battle — and a question caught her off guard.

She's different from our Goddess.

It was surely the same being, and yet she could feel a subtle difference. Why? Eluke did not follow the thought any further. It was a subject she was afraid to look at too closely.

"You two just focus on Kbalt."

Karita hurled a blizzard straight ahead. A savage cold crashed over the battlefield, and the legions of sky and earth froze solid in its path.

"The rest, we shall handle ourselves."

A small girl popped out from Karita's back.

"Liam is hardly what one would call a good man, but he is preferable to Kbalt, is he not? I pray you resolve this well."

Logan transformed into a tiger in turn and began to tear across the field.

"Shall we go too?"

"Yeah."

I approached the Kbalt standing idle in the distance, the Liam from the other world at my side.

"O Silver Hero. Behold the corpse legion prepared by your counterpart in this world. What do you make of it?"

Nearly naked vampire-Clitia corpses clung to Kbalt from every side. On every possible level, it was nauseating. Kbalt was the one moving them now, but Liam had probably prepared all of this in the first place. Looking at it, he seemed to think that even a corpse was fine — so long as it was Clitia.

"You into that kind of thing too?"

"Not in the slightest. A corpse can never be Clitia."

The other Liam's expression hardened as he took his Holy Power blade in both hands.

"I do understand the feeling, though."

"……"

Whether he was a true Hero or a half-undead, they really were the same bastard.

"He's coming. Focus."

Kbalt charged, so I shoved the stray thoughts aside and wrapped my whole body in Aura. The fight was on.

"Despair."

A greatsword came screaming down. The miasma made it hard to block with Aura alone — and I charged it head-on anyway. The distance to the blade shrank. His swordsmanship didn't so much as twitch at the sudden close-in. It was dangerous, but I trusted the companion at my side.

"Kh—"

A blade of Holy Power caught the greatsword. In that opening I drove in deep and threw a punch. The impact detonated in a dark-red burst. I had held back the output, but the destructive force was still enormous. Kbalt staggered and checked his stride.

I still had one more. This time I drove out my left fist, packed with even more mana than the last. A bigger explosion went off, and Kbalt was blasted backward onto the ground. Both my hands vanished from the attack — and both grew back almost at once. It hurt, sure, but by my standards it was a scratch.

"Don't use that technique anymore."

I realized soon enough that the whole thing had been a waste.

"Yeah. I won't."

Kbalt stood up looking completely unharmed. I had blown both my hands for that. The miasma defense was too solid — Aura hadn't gotten through at all.

"How dare you!"

Kbalt flew into a rage and came running. With every footfall, the air around him blackened.

"O Sun, lend me Your strength."

The other Liam thrust one hand forward. A thick beam of light lanced out and blasted the oncoming Kbalt off his feet again.

"We don't have time, so listen carefully."

He looked at me and started talking fast.

"Kbalt split his own soul into thousands of fragments. That's why so many of him can exist at once."

First I'd heard of it. So that was why his durability had seemed so poor.

"Black magic, then."

"Yeah. And that left him with a weakness. You know what it is, right?"

I nodded. Magic or black magic, the structure came with a worst-possible natural enemy.

"Third-stage Aura?"

"That's the one."

Whether it was a magic circle or a spell already in effect, it was made of mana. And Aura that could shatter mana would eat it alive.

"If you kill one of him and sever the connection at the same time, the rest of them will all vanish. But I can't manage Aura at that level. It has to be someone like you."

"I can't use Holy Power, though."

Kbalt took no damage from anything that wasn't a weapon imbued with Holy Power. It didn't matter how well I handled Aura if I couldn't land a hit.

"No. You can do this. I'm trusting you with it."

The other Liam left me with nothing but a pep talk and took off running. What the hell was I supposed to do with that? I didn't have time to stand there confused, so I fused Aura into my right arm for a start.

My master had told me once that there was no weapon more reliable than a body you had trained yourself. My fists were going to be the thing that shattered the First Heaven of the Demon King's Army.

But what came after that? I chewed my lip, completely at a loss. No answer would come.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Sun-bask steadied ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me.

"……"

An elegant way of speaking that sat wrong somehow. It was strange, but I didn't have the luxury of dwelling on it.

"Thanks. Good advice."

Thanks to Sun-bask, I could see the path forward. The question of how I was supposed to use Holy Power had been absurd from the start.

I closed my eyes and folded my hands before my chest, and I prayed with everything I had. They ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had said that even on the darkest night, the Sun still hung beyond the sky, unchanged. I raised my Aura-wrapped right arm, reaching even a little closer to the Sun hidden behind the night. And after the prayer ended, I did not move. I waited, hoping She would answer in brilliant light.

And at last — She did.

"O Sun…"

"I shall carry out Your will."

I had to finish this before She changed Her mind. I flooded both legs with Aura and broke into a sprint.

"Get back!"

The other Liam heard me and broke off mid-swing, throwing himself backward. Kbalt's greatsword carved empty air. An opening. I drove forward even faster, compressing still more mana into my fist. He saw me coming and formed a shield of miasma. A cold, precise response. Impressive — and a fatal mistake.

I reached him and drove my right arm through.

Fist met shield.

"This is impossible—"

A killing blow. His body listed, and a flood of Kbalt's soul-fragments came pouring out.

"Where do you think you're going?"

I didn't let them go. I chased them down and punched through the Kbalt at the very rear of the fleeing swarm.

"GRAAAAAH!"

"This time, stay dead."

The Kbalt I had struck vanished like smoke. One by one, the others scattering in every direction winked out after him. Before long, even the chill the souls had been giving off settled and died.

A clean victory. As of today, the Demon King's Four Heavenly Kings were truly, finally extinct.

The price was my entire right arm, swollen an angry red and refusing to move.

"This much doesn't hurt."

The Goddess had answered me. What did a little pain matter next to that? Overwhelmed, I dropped to my knees.

"I told you you could do it."

The other Liam came over, got an arm under me, and pulled me to my feet. I appreciated it, but the height difference just made the whole thing more awkward.

"Let go."

"Don't be embarrassed. You're hurting."

"That's why it's worse. Let go."

"You don't have to refuse."

We were still bickering when I felt a gaze from somewhere that made my skin crawl.

"Clitia…"

Liam — the one who had just taken his body back — was coming toward us at a slow walk, filling the hole in his chest with miasma as he came.

"Stop."

The other Liam's voice went cold as he leveled his Holy Power blade.

"You came to attack the village too, didn't you?"

"That's right."

He admitted it without a fight. He was acting on reason, not madness — just like the Liam from our days in the Hero's party.

"Stand down. You can't beat me in that body anyway."

He was never going to turn around and leave quietly. Liam stood his ground and looked only at me.

"Give me a moment."

The other Liam left me where I was, walked over, and faced Liam directly.

"One question. Tell me what you plan to do from here."

"I'm going to turn the nuns of the Church — including the current Saintess — into Clitias."

"……"

It wasn't the talk of a madman. The sincerity in it came through loud and clear.

"Liam is Liam, I suppose, no matter the world."

Logan had come up beside me at some point, and she clicked her tongue.

"That isn't Clitia."

"You don't know Clitia. I know her better than you do."

"Is that so? I have already shared a bed with Clitia, I'll have you know."

Liam whipped around to stare at me, startled. I shook my head in a frantic denial.

"I hate both of you."

I made my feelings as clear as I could, just so there wouldn't be a misunderstanding. Not that it mattered — the two Liams didn't so much as pause their staring contest.

"I can't let you leave alive. You're too dangerous."

"I wasn't planning on just walking away anyway."

They drew their swords at the same time. They meant to see this through to the end.

"Clitia. Liam will ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠never defeat the Liam who came from the other world."

"I know."

I answered bitterly. One way or another, a second farewell to a companion I held dear was drawing close.