Valoran Subjugation Battle (5)
A warped landscape.
A space where the earth had become the sky and the sky the earth.
The ruined heartland of Cartia had turned into a barren wasteland, while the sky that once bloomed with clouds now hung cracked and clotted, plastered over itself in ugly patches.
And upon that sky, color was painted.
A vivid crimson.
A moon darker than blood.
And the red greatsword that cradled it.
Clang—!
The red greatsword, brimming with overwhelming power, crushed the space itself.
"Why do you not swing your greatsword?"
From behind the locked blades, viscous demonic energy welled up and wrapped around Valoran's body.
"Why do you hesitate?"
With those words, a cataclysmic aura began to pour from him.
The fragile balance of power shattered. My knees started to buckle.
"Do you believe I am of a different cut from the beasts you have faced?"
Crack— Countless fissures spiderwebbed across the ground beneath my feet.
"Do you feel that I am no mere magic beast?"
Rumble— At last the earth began to collapse, swallowing my body whole.
"Raise your greatsword. Do not hesitate. I am the Beast of the End—Valoran."
Dizzying memories seeped into my mind.
Carpeng's memories.
Tyrant's memories.
"I am the one who will bring calamity upon this world, the one who will snatch away all you hold dear."
And Cartia's memories.
"So rise. Rise, take up your greatsword, and kill me. If you do not—"
Gong— With the peal of a colossal bell, hundreds of eyes bloomed behind Valoran's back.
"I will kill the shrine maiden."
Grind— grind— Every revolving eye turned as one toward a single point.
"I will rip out her soul, tear it to shreds, and scatter it across the earth. Her tattered flesh I will hang at the World's End."
A wave of demonic energy erupted—vast beyond comparison to anything before, endless and bottomless.
The blood aura cloaking my body surged upward.
A razor-edged cold began at my throat and spread across the field.
Frey, clenched in my hand, hungered for victory.
A torrent of demonic energy vast as the open plains itself came crashing toward me.
Thousands of spikes rained from the sky.
Tens of thousands of orbs rose into the air and detonated.
The greatsword that had coiled around the red sky hurtled straight at me.
"Pfft..."
"Yeah..."
I nodded and adjusted my grip on Frey. It had grown heavier than before, yet that weight felt welcome.
I steadied my breathing and painted the landscape in my mind. Every current registered in exquisite detail; the flow of time stretched thin.
I stepped forward. Light. The motion was seamless. My foot met the earth with perfect natural economy—not a single wasted fraction.
Spikes of blood aura lanced out, skewering the falling spikes and shoving the orbs aside.
The cold that dominated the field interfered with the demonic currents, twisting their direction and inverting their nature.
One great stride. I stretched out my arm.
Frey and the sky formed a perfect vertical line.
I swung upward and sheared through the red greatsword's path.
Shhk—
The greatsword's motion was cut short.
The scar of Frey's blade was carved into Valoran's mindscape.
"Hmm."
The corner of Valoran's mouth lifted.
Stretched time snapped back.
The tidal wave of demonic energy that had bound my body undulated and drained away.
The spikes and orbs still hanging in the air detonated, birthing a thick fog.
I swept Frey in a wide arc to clear the mist and charged straight at Valoran.
First—the most familiar upward slash.
Using the sensation transmitted through my toes, I channeled the power rising through my waist into my arms and swung.
In that motion, Valoran's movement was painted clear.
A slight tilt of the greatsword's edge, a twisting upward parry.
Flowing Water.
I gathered Tyrant's cold into a single point and restricted Valoran's movement.
I slammed Carpeng's blood aura into my arm, writhing the muscles into new shapes.
Valoran's motion dulled. Frey's trajectory warped. The blade that had been aimed at his waist now shot toward his forearm.
Kwaang—!
An impact like a blunt weapon rang out; Valoran's body staggered. Without pause I drove Frey straight down, used it as a foothold, and leapt upward.
Thousands of spikes erupted from the ground and pierced the empty air. I loaded blood aura into my floating body, forcibly yanked myself back to earth, twisted my waist, and swung Frey.
Kaang—!
Valoran's greatsword, swung in an instant, was knocked aside.
Dozens of eyes bloomed behind him and fired orbs of demonic energy. The spheres flowed, twisted, and hurtled toward me at blistering speed.
I didn't hesitate. I dashed straight to Valoran's feet.
Kak—
I let the swinging greatsword slide past with Flowing Water and bound his movement with cold. Immediately I smashed a mass of blood aura into my own body and launched myself far away.
Clang—!
The demonic orbs that had tracked my motion slammed into Valoran instead.
I didn't miss his reeling form. I closed in and struck the point where his weight was centered.
Crunch— Feeling the sensation of bone pulverizing, I raised my knee to drive it into his gut.
In that fleeting instant—
Demonic energy compressed around Valoran.
A 0.2-second counter.
The moment I recognized it, it activated.
Kwagagak—!
An unknown, formless force smashed into me and sent my body tumbling across the ground.
Sensation in my limbs began to dull.
I ground my tongue between my teeth and jammed spikes of blood aura into my nerves. Dizzying pain flared; every sense snapped back into place.
I smashed a potion bottle against myself, dousing my entire body, rose to my feet, stamped the ground, and swung Frey.
The silent arc of the blade sheared through Valoran's magic closing in from every direction.
I flung four daggers to shatter the magic circles blooming on the ground, wrapped myself in cold, and charged through the gaps.
A colossal fist filled my vision.
I arched my back just enough to dodge and hauled Frey upward.
Shhk— A deep sword wound carved itself into Valoran's forearm—an arm the size of my entire body.
At the same moment, a massive magic circle rose from the ground.
At this range, there was no dodging it.
I would cut it.
I left the harassment to blood aura and focused every scrap of Qi Sensing on the circle.
Recalling Sirin's teachings, I traced the core formula of the magic.
Found it.
I immediately hurled a dagger and drove it into that center.
I didn't wait to watch it unravel. I charged Valoran. Sirin's lessons never failed.
"Ha!"
A hearty laugh burst from Valoran's mouth.
"That old monster! So she went and stirred things up!"
He sounded delighted.
Valoran, mouth stretched into a full grin, unfurled his wings.
A continuous attack pattern laced with instant-death strikes.
First—
Above, left.
Kak— Kaang—!
I deflected them. Two turns of rest.
Then it was my turn to attack.
I twisted my body with blood aura and carved a deep sword scar into Valoran's exposed abdomen.
Next—diagonal lower right.
Clang—!
This one I couldn't bounce. I immediately opened distance and prepared for the next motion. Then a long thrust. I laid the greatsword sideways, let the thrust slide past, and ducked in close against Valoran.
I sliced his ankle clean through, leapt from the spot, and avoided the low sweep.
I crushed my body downward with blood aura and landed hard.
A red greatsword skimmed past, raking through my hair.
Before I could even catch my breath I flung myself clear.
Clang—! The greatsword slammed down where I had stood.
Then erupted a wave of demonic energy that swallowed everything.
I reset my stance and scattered my greatsword toward the center of the wave painted in my Qi Sensing.
Kwagagagak—!
A hair-thin gap opened among the scattered strikes.
I threw my body straight into that gap. A wave thick with murderous intent grazed past me, raising every hair on my skin.
I ignored the impact booming behind me, forced myself upright, and cleared the area.
Wings stretched to their limit, greatsword extended—demonic energy concentrated into both.
All the demonic energy freed from the dominion of cold funneled into the tip of the greatsword. The massive orb shrank to the size of a fist.
The fist shrank further—to a bead the size of an eyeball.
At last it fell to the ground.
In that same instant I kicked off and charged.
Toward the heart of the wave.
Toward the eye of the typhoon, without a shred of hesitation, I crumpled my body and forced my way inside.
And then—
-----------!
An indescribable explosion roared; heaven and earth screamed.
I chewed and swallowed painkillers and forced myself up.
My sense of balance was shot.
At some point my ankle had twisted; the direction felt wrong.
Every fingernail had been ripped out; half the skin on my side was peeled away.
I left movement to blood aura and poured the remaining potions over my entire body.
I'd broken the pattern. That was enough.
Confirming the wounds were closing, I gripped Frey reverse-handed.
Now it's my damage turn.
I ground my teeth and swung the greatsword upward with everything I had.
Kwaang—! An impact like a hammer striking a wall.
Yet Valoran offered no resistance.
Just like in the game—the damage window after a wide-area attack.
The cause... chains descending from the sky.
Something radiating an aura utterly different from demonic energy was binding Valoran's body.
Even so, he still wore that amused curl of the lips.
"Perhaps... it may yet be possible."
I ignored Valoran's voice and swung the greatsword.
I unleashed blood aura and scattered cold.
Without the seal of the Bracelet of Verdure, every scrap of overflowing rank poured into Frey.
And I scattered it without restraint.
One blow split the sky.
One blow shattered the earth.
Tyrant's mindscape—hatred for the flame of the end that had left only emptiness upon the world—erupted.
Carpeng's mindscape—forced to spill the blood of her own kind—poured forth.
Cartia's mindscape—the one who had turned a darkened world white through the long night—layered over them all.
"Yet it is not enough."
The wings that had been losing form transformed into vivid crimson pinions and unfurled once more.
"With that, you cannot kill the First Magic Beast."
Above his head, a tattered halo rose.
"With that, you cannot stop the End."
From the cracks in the split moon—
a red karma that would soak the entire world began to pour.
"Show me everything. And kill me."
Phase 4.
I dumped every remaining painkiller down my throat and poured the Elixir after them, swallowing hard.
I cast off everything that weighed my body down.
Emptied my head.
Filled my heart.
And gripped Frey reverse-handed.
"Watch closely."
A moment later—
"This is the path of mine, paved entirely with failure."
Valoran's voice rang out as though pronouncing judgment upon the world itself.
⟨ Fallen Heaven ⟩
The sky inverted.