Black Knight Kalt (Finale)
“Rubia Unni!”
A lukewarm liquid seeped into my mouth. The divine power that had been sleeping deep inside me stirred, jolting my body awake. I twisted my stiff neck this way and that and opened my eyes.
“U-Unni! H-Hurry and get up!”
“Priestess… every second counts.”
“Ha… this is… what in the world…”
The first thing I saw when my eyes opened was the black sun hanging high in the sky. The same black sun I had once witnessed in a revelation—the symbol of the end. I let out a trembling breath and turned my head.
A long crimson carpet of blood stretched out before me, all the way to the overturned earth that began from where we had last stood. To call the devastation the aftermath of a battle between humans would have been absurd. It was ruined beyond reason. Saying that Karahan’s height had been reduced by about fifty meters would make the explanation easier.
I shook my head and rose to my feet. Kalt had torn my limbs apart until I was little more than a writhing larva, yet somehow I had recovered completely. For a brief moment I felt revulsion toward this monstrous body of mine. Then I forced my creaking frame forward, following the red carpet of blood.
“Unni…?”
“Priestess, you must be careful—”
“How can the employer and the employee be exactly the same? Hey! Rubia! You can’t go alone!”
Along the way, the blood soaking the ground began to mingle with shadow. The shadows writhed without rest, stabbing at my legs. I stomped them, leapt high, ran, and spread divine power—yet they still pierced, sliced, and coiled around my legs without fail.
“Uwaaah…! Y-Yuria!!! Please save me!!”
“What the hell is this… remnants of the shadow?”
“Ah, fuck! This is goddamn disgusting.”
The unease grew thicker. My breathing quickened; my steps quickened. Walking became a full sprint. Even as blood burst from my legs and my body was torn open, I kept going without pause.
“Does it only attack living creatures…? The roots Master summoned are… fine, aren’t they…?”
“Seems that way, but we can’t be sure… Hepais, you get into the subspace. It’s dangerous.”
“Hey! Rubia, you crazy bitch! Get on here right now! This is safe, I said… wait. Hey, what the hell is that… huh?”
And at the end of that path, Noah—wreathed in dark-crimson aura—and Kalt, who could no longer be called human, who had become shadow itself, were still locked in combat.
Shadows that blanketed the sky poured down upon Noah.
“N-Noah Unni!”
Shadow tentacles that overturned the earth coiled around Noah’s body.
“Noah…?”
Thousands upon tens of thousands of blades shot from Kalt’s form toward Noah.
“You fucking idiot, this isn’t the time! Yuria! Hurry! Go forward!”
Noah hurled herself into that hellscape. She closed the distance on Kalt and cut. She carved through formless shadow again and again. With every swing, blood erupted from her entire body—more blood than that tiny frame should ever have been able to produce. Blood as if her heart itself were being wrung dry. It was creating the crimson carpet that stretched from where we had stood all the way to this place, right before our eyes. Without retreating. Enduring. She had advanced this far.
I heard the sound of my companions swallowing their breath. A roar that seemed to tear the sky itself descended. Kalt’s howl echoed across the summit of Karahan. Noah’s scream reached our ears. And then silence fell over the world.
Yuria’s tree roots lifted me and raced toward Noah at high speed. Charlotte’s flames beat back the shadows that lunged at us. I poured out divine power, restoring Yuria and Charlotte while driving the shadows away. Noah’s form filled my eyes.
From a distance she had looked intact. The dark-crimson aura surrounding her body was pure black. The only reason it still carried a red tint was Noah’s own blood. The arms that had seemed whole were twisted, broken, and torn. Her skin looked as if it had been roughly stitched back together, grotesque. Her fingers were gone. Her legs were the same. The long hair that had once been soft and cute now barely reached her shoulders. Her spine had punched through the skin of her back.
And in that state, she kept fighting. Blood aura like Carpeng’s wrapped around Noah’s body, forcibly moving her limbs. Even though her life should have ended long ago—should have been snuffed out already—Noah was still being driven by that blood aura, still swinging her greatsword, still carving into Kalt.
The battle moved at a speed the eye could barely follow. Fresh droplets of blood rose into the air before the previous ones could even touch the ground. Before those new droplets could take shape, Noah’s body moved. The greatsword swung. With each swing came dozens of sonic booms. The broken Noah was charging faster than we, with our intact limbs, could approach.
Kalt was faster still. Yet Noah refused to give up. She clung on with vicious tenacity, biting and tearing. Tears streamed from her eyes, scattered by the wind, mingling with the blood droplets, seeping into the shadows and weaving yet another carpet of red.
We chased after Noah’s back along that path of blood. Then Noah’s arm was severed. Her body stopped. The blood aura that had been forcing her to move scattered. Kalt’s laughter rang out.
Even so, Noah stretched out a foot and stepped forward. Her body tilted. She planted a hand. The hand that was nothing but skin without bone could not support her. Neither elbow nor shoulder nor anything else could hold her up. But she did not stop. She twisted her neck and dug into the earth with her chin. Her jaw dislocated. She scraped with her teeth. Her teeth broke. She used her gums. And as Noah crawled forward with that desperate, grinding effort, a shadow skewered her body.
The tree roots surged forward even harder. The flames that had been holding back the shadows roared higher, sweeping every shadow in the vicinity away. I dropped to my knees and prayed. For the first time since becoming a priestess, I prayed with my whole heart.
And then—
“What do you desire?”
A voice reached me. Somewhere familiar, yet a voice I had never heard before.
The power to protect. The hope to dream of tomorrow together. Everything that would let me save the person I loved.
“For whom?”
For Noah. Solely, only for her.
“Very well.”
Eight pairs of silver-white wings unfurled from my back.
“No price will be required.”
Wings that spread wide enough to blot out the black sun wrapped around Noah’s body. The shadow that had pierced her was erased. The remnants of shadow that had blanketed the area scattered. The black sun began to recede, little by little.
Kalt’s monstrous scream rang out. Yuria’s attack shot forth—and glanced past him. Charlotte’s flames rushed at Kalt—and passed straight through. My divine power was the same. Dozens, hundreds of attacks, and none of them landed. Then shadows split into thousands of strands and charged toward us. Charlotte’s flames resisted. Yuria’s beasts and plants struck them down. My divine power pushed them back.
“How… how are we supposed to attack… How did Noah-nim—”
“Uwaaaaaaah!! Fuuuuuuck!! Rubia!! Can’t those wings do something?! Gyaaaargh!”
Noah’s body twitched. Her remaining left arm groped along the roots. She writhed, trying to push herself up with a forehead whose skin was completely shredded. Even like this. Even with her entire body reduced to a wreck. Even with a body that could die at any moment—already a dead body—she was still searching for a sword.
The greatsword lay far behind her. Charlotte’s sword was the same.
“Sword… is there a sword? Anything… just something I can… swing… a-any… thing… at all… hhk…”
Even in this situation. Even looking at what Noah had become. I hated myself for still having no choice but to rely on her. I was incompetent. I was ugly. Yet I kept searching for a sword.
Then, from between the tree roots, Hepais’s arm suddenly thrust upward.
“H-Here! Sword…!!”
A hand holding a sword. A familiar sword. Luci’s sword rested in Hepais’s grip. Hepais pressed Luci’s sword into Noah’s still-twitching hand. Strength seemed to return to a body that should have had none left. The left arm rose weakly. Charlotte’s flames wrapped around Noah. Plant stems that had sprouted with a soft rustle coiled around her. I focused the divine power that had been driving back the shadows onto Noah’s body instead.
Noah raised her arm fully. Yuria looked around at us and swallowed dryly. She nodded.
“Damn it! Fuck! Son of a bitch! H-Hurry… anything! Do— hhk… s-something—!”
Hundreds of beasts burst forth around the tree roots. Sharp thorns erupted. Stems, leaves, and petals of every kind of plant scattered through the air. Speed increased. The roots shot forward at a velocity that made it nearly impossible to keep one’s eyes open and reached Kalt.
And in the instant a shadow shot from Kalt’s hand—
Noah’s arm slipped downward. The sword, swung with no strength left in it, tore through Kalt’s shadow. Through the rent shadow, Kalt’s body was revealed. A sword was buried in his heart, and black veins bulged across his flesh.
Yuria’s thorns shot forth. Charlotte’s flames blazed. Divine power that carried everything I had was swung.
No scream was heard. No roar. No sound of flesh being torn or bursting. Only quiet.
Clink—
Kalt’s sword fell to the ground. The black sun crumbled. The sky cleared. Warm light wrapped around Karahan.
And then—
Noah’s hand. The sword she had been holding. Fell.