Sanctuary of Memory (3)
The moment we changed positions, the first thing I did was expand my Qi Sensing to grasp the state of Cartia.
I had expected it, but the situation was worse than I thought.
The outskirts where the residents had gathered were relatively intact, yet from the mainland outward, most of the central district was no different from the East Ruins.
Still, I supposed it was a mercy that they had not used the townsfolk as bait when they took down Valoran.
Plenty of people had died either way… but at least Rubia would not have to carry that particular guilt.
We had been running for quite a while when labored breathing reached me from behind.
“Um… maybe we should rest a little after all…?”
“What…?! Hah… i-if you suddenly say that… huff, b-but we’re not really in a situation where we can… uh…”
Rubia skidded to a halt in pure shock and began scanning the surroundings.
“…There isn’t a single intact building.”
“Huh…?”
Can’t we just sit on the ground here and rest?
“And… we can’t stay covered in dust like this. We absolutely have to wash up. Mmm… of course I could clean us with my power, but mood is mood, you know?”
Wash up?
Sure, a shower always made the fatigue ease a little… but why bring that up out of nowhere in a place like this?
What mood?
“No beds either… Maybe we should head for the outskirts.”
“Rubia…?”
“Yes?”
“Th-that… what are you talking about…? Washing and beds…”
At my words Rubia tilted her head as if I were the one speaking nonsense.
“Weren’t you the one who suggested it?”
“Suggested what…?”
Still frozen in that pose, Rubia’s face flooded with pure mortification.
“Ah… uh… this is Noah’s fault.”
“M-mine…?!”
“Yes. After kissing me like that and then saying ‘let’s rest,’ anyone would get the wrong idea.”
She whipped her head away, fingers tightening.
“So don’t look at me with that weird face.”
An expression of overwhelming embarrassment.
I rarely got to see Rubia look like that.
Guess today’s my lucky day…
“Mmm… Rubia’s a pervert.”
“Wh-what?! I am not!”
“Super pervert…”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake! This is ridiculous! Who do you think made me this way?!”
Normally she would have shot back something like “So you hate it?”—but she was flustered enough to give me this adorable reaction instead.
I snickered at the sight of her.
“After everything’s over… we can. As much as we want.”
“As much as we want… really? Can you handle that? Can you take responsibility for those words? Even I don’t know what I’ll do to Noah, and you’re saying ‘as much as we want’?”
“Uh… j-just a little as much as we want…”
“Pfft… What is ‘a little as much as we want’ supposed to mean?”
She gently pulled me into her arms and whispered in a voice completely different from a moment ago—soft, refined.
“I love you, Noah.”
Then, without waiting for my reply, she straightened of her own accord and tugged my arm forward.
“Shall we go? Lady Ser and Lady Hermila are waiting.”
“…Yes.”
For some reason Rubia’s voice had grown quiet and heavy.
“We’re almost there.”
Rubia struggled over the shattered remnants of the wall, then let out a long breath and surveyed the area.
I too swept the surroundings with Qi Sensing and drew a deep breath of my own.
The nauseating stench of war.
A thick, foul air that made lungs and nostrils scream blanketed the ruins.
The ground, soaked in every kind of filth and sticky blood, was twisted and broken; atop it lay finely minced scraps of flesh so dense there was barely room to set a foot.
And if you followed that horrific landscape upward—
things that could no longer be called human crawled across the ground, plastering those scraps of flesh onto their own bodies as they wandered.
At the crest of the hill, where the Sanctuary of Memory stood, a massive earthen mound rose like a giant grave, and intermittent sonic booms cracked the air around it.
The ones producing those sounds were:
Ser, her face contorted, body covered in sword scars;
Hermila, still fighting with one arm torn clean off;
a headless, left-arm-less torso crawling across the dirt;
and a man at the head of the monsters, swinging a greatsword.
“Lady Ser and Lady Hermila’s condition… is really bad. We need to get there fast…”
I squeezed Rubia’s hand tight.
She squeezed back just as hard and flared her Divine Power. From her slender frame the power soared skyward and formed the shape of a colossal sun.
…Was it always this strong?
“If I do this, they’ll know we’ve arrived. So… let’s hurry.”
The instant Rubia’s foot left the ground, the sun of Divine Power she had created spread wide and shattered into tiny particles.
Those particles drifted down like snowflakes, transforming the unclean things crawling on the ground into the same motes of light, until a calm sea of radiance covered everything.
And then—
Plip—
One final drop fell onto the sea of Divine Power and sent out a vast ripple.
That ripple swelled into a towering wave that washed the fouled earth clean, healed dying allies, and climbed the hill.
…Impossible.
“Noah?”
“Ah… y-yes…”
Rubia had just wrought a miracle that defied all reason, yet she acted as if it were nothing at all.
Still holding my hand, she left footprints on the newly purified ground.
Soft soil.
Land that had clearly been dead only moments before had transformed into fertile earth ready to burst with life at any second.
In the blink of an eye.
[Well, it really did change, just like that bastard said. A little early, though.]
Cartia’s voice, exhausted to the point of collapse, echoed in my head, and I grimaced.
[You gonna be okay?]
‘I have to be okay.’
I gave a small nod, planted a fresh footprint beside hers, and stepped ahead of her stride.
So that my steps would lead.
At that quick pace we crossed the shimmering sea of Divine Power, climbed the hill, and gradually drew near the battlefield.
Even after the wave of Divine Power had purified it once, the reek still clung thick.
Fresh corpses sketched themselves into my senses.
Torn, dangling scraps of flesh snagged at my feet again.
An adventurer who looked freshly wounded crawled across the ground, trying to flee.
Sticky blood seeped from armor crumpled like paper.
Beyond that—
tens of thousands of troops surrounding a massive earthen wall.
Their eyeballs rolled with a wet glurk.
Necks cracked with a sharp crack.
Torsos folded.
Legs twisted the wrong way.
And the place where all those gazes finally stopped was—
me and Rubia.
I summoned Frey at once and stepped in front of her.
I raised my presence.
Carpeng’s blood aura wrapped my body.
Tyrant’s cold seized the area.
Valoran’s feathers scattered through the air.
Rustle—
The instant one drifting feather touched the earth, the tens of thousands of troops charged us as one.
I reset my stance.
Blood aura guided my movements.
I stamped a true step.
Mana gathered by the cold filled the gaps in my insufficient presence.
Then, following the trajectory drawn in my mind, I swung Frey.
The demonic energy of the Fallen Heaven layered over Frey was unleashed, birthing absolute death.
The strongest single strike I could manage right now.
That one blow erased thirty percent of the tens of thousands.
“Hah… h-hah… kh…”
I barely shook off the sudden crushing exhaustion and raised Frey toward the rest.
If I removed the Bracelet of Verdure, the fight would become easier… but it was far too dangerous.
Two straight days of battle against Valoran were part of it, yet the real problem was that I had fought so long without the bracelet… my sense of self felt ready to collapse.
Too many mental images crowded my head.
I kept forgetting who I was.
And Cartia, the only one who could anchor my mind, was exhausted and resting, so taking it off now would be truly… dangerous.
I had no choice but to grind my teeth and prepare to leap at the still-swarming horde—when the ground beneath Rubia and me cracked and surged upward, forming a stairway that led straight to the hilltop.
From the far end came Ser’s urgent voice calling us.
I seized Rubia’s hand tight and sprinted up that path without a second thought.
In an instant monsters used their own comrades as footholds and landed on the stairs one after another.
Frey severed their limbs; Rubia’s Divine Power pierced their cores.
Spirits that had gathered in a flash scattered the ones below and toppled the mountain of corpses.
Even so, a few still managed to climb.
Completed Masters.
Without breaking stride I released Rubia’s hand and gripped Frey with both hands.
Dozens of spells shot toward us and vanished under Ser’s spirits.
Hundreds of arrows slammed into Rubia’s barrier.
Sword auras that tore the air were cut down by Frey.
My legs never stopped; I kept running.
And the moment we reached the completed ones—
CRACK—!
Hermila, wreathed in ominous purple energy, came flying in and kicked their bodies aside.
“Miss Noah! You’re safe!”
Even missing one arm, she greeted me with a bright smile.
“Lady Hermila, your arm…”
Rubia covered her mouth at the sight of Hermila’s empty shoulder, face crumpling.
“Heh. I wagered it on a new world.”
“What? What does that—”
Hermila chuckled at Rubia’s blank expression, then used her remaining hand to gently stroke my head.
“I’m glad you’re unharmed, Miss Noah. You worked hard…”
“…Yes.”
“Well then, shall we go? I’d love to hear all sorts of stories, but we’re short on time.”
I nodded and adjusted my grip on Frey.
“Once you finish the trial and come out, how about Miss Noah, Lady Rubia, Lady Ser, and Lady Sirin… all of us going for a meal together?”
With that, Hermila smiled softly and turned her back. Rubia, having steadied her breath, caught the words drifting away into the air.
“Coffee at the forge too. I’ll… take the coffee Noah makes.”
Their light words hung in the air, yet their gazes remained deeply sunken as they faced the Sanctuary of Memory.
“Heh. That sounds nice.”