Chapter 86
Chapter 86
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 86
Chapter Title: Unleashed Fury
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Knowing his friend's character well, Loan knew Lucas would intervene and didn't stop him.
Commander Hans's words about not being consumed by anger came to mind, but Lucas was strongest when influenced by his emotions.
With Lucas being angry enough for the both of them, Loan could instead calmly assess the situation.
At times like this, one had to judge and act with a cool head.
But what even Loan hadn't expected were the words Lucas spat at Pierre.
'Lucas is making such a logical argument?'
If he had been in Lucas's place, he probably would have said the same thing.
Could it be that Lucas's mind grew sharper when he was overly excited or in a pressing situation?
While Loan pondered this, the Versa officiator raised his voice, as if to prove Lucas's point.
"The second duelist. Luca Albrecht of the Albrecht family."
Though it was a fake name, it wasn't strange to see Lucas, a claymore wielder, as a member of the Albrecht family.
Pierre paid him no mind and continued his taunts.
"Never heard that name before. Did you drag in a relative? Ah, are you perhaps an illegitimate child too? Is that why you're so worked up?"
"..."
"Keke. Right, like you said, we can just change the order. If I kill you, does the match go back to square one?"
He muttered with a particularly vile laugh, but since Lucas wasn't looking at him, he couldn't see his expression.
"..."
A perfect dismissal.
Lucas blatantly turned his body to look at Sophie.
She was being held by Loan, and beside them, Melville was fidgeting, pacing back and forth anxiously.
There was no sign of life from Sophie.
"I held back..."
Even Melville hadn't known his strike would be so powerful.
"Will she be okay? There don't seem to be any external injuries, right?"
While Melville worriedly mumbled, Loan was examining Sophie's condition.
The murky mana drifting through her body was deeply unsettling.
'Like the children in Varcino back then, she collapsed from the shock but isn't dead. The problem is whether her state is exactly the same. It feels like... more of her humanity has vanished. In that case...'
Can I purify it without a medium? Or should I quickly ask the Stability Division for help? Was it Marquis Maurice himself who did this to Sophie?
With these questions in mind, Loan lifted his head and looked at Lucas.
Their eyes met, and they nodded at the same time.
A great deal of meaning was packed into that single gesture.
That she seemed okay for now, that it was a relief, to go and win, that he'd be back soon, not to get hurt, that he wouldn't.
*Swish—*
Lucas slowly turned around.
His face was wrought with fury.
Pierre's words, heard from behind, had been grating, but something else had truly infuriated Lucas.
"Your sister collapsed over there, and you don't even care?"
"Sister? Where? Ah, you mean that thing? Why should I care about some riffraff my father doesn't even acknowledge?"
His expression and attitude made it clear he genuinely thought so.
Lucas gritted his teeth.
"You really are a piece of work. You need a good beating."
He wasn't good at arguing anyway. It was just in time.
*Deeeeeeeng—*
The sound announcing the second duel rang out. The officiator had received the signal from both family heads to proceed.
As the chime from the old bell echoed through the mountain range, leaving a lingering resonance.
Neither Lucas nor Pierre charged forward.
Despite that, the dueling ground was filled with a sharp, heavy energy that felt like it could slice through skin.
"Hoo..."
Pierre let out a deep breath.
The flippant character who had been sneering and chuckling just moments ago was gone. The moment the duel began, he was serious.
Perhaps Lucas had made him so.
Pierre took the Pobel family's Upper Stance, which Lucas had seen and faced many times before, and stared at Lucas from between the mountain shape formed by his arms.
Lucas, pointing his greatsword at Pierre with one hand, exuded an aura as vast as a mountain.
And the one who moved first was the mountain within the mountain.
*CRACK—!*
A tremendous crash erupted from the ground where Lucas had been standing.
Compressed air exploded, and a cloud of dust rose in its wake. Lucas's greatsword flickered in the sunlight as it swept horizontally toward Pierre.
It was practically a charge.
The claymore, swung with overflowing momentum, seemed to cover all directions.
With escape looking bleak, Pierre decided to test his opponent's strength.
A vertical sword path against a horizontal strike.
Pierre swung his sword down.
In that moment, a destructive force surged forward from his entire body. The afterimage of his aura was far wider than the blade itself.
A blow that seemed to compress space into light, and then.
*KABOOOOM!*
The impact of the collision.
Both were pushed back. Lucas, who had closed the distance, came out worse off than Pierre.
The cliff was only a few steps behind him.
But Pierre had no time to worry about that.
A sword path that, despite using a greatsword, was somehow different from the Albrecht style. Power that seemed to match his own, even though the opponent's mana hadn't yet blossomed into a sword flower.
But what was more absurd was that despite receiving a similar impact, his opponent charged with even greater ferocity than before.
Only then did Pierre feel the warm breeze of the cliff rising behind his neck. He threw himself to the side, trying to secure room to plant his feet.
It was a move meant to lure his opponent's overly direct attack toward the cliff, but.
Just as the claymore, unable to keep up with his nimble movement, seemed to cut through empty air.
*SKRRRRRRAPE—!*
With a sound of his soles tearing up the stone ground, Lucas's body suddenly moved in a bizarre way.
His lower body seemed to plant itself into the ground while his upper body twisted sideways, his waist bending to an impossible degree as he continued the sword's path.
*CLANG—!*
Pierre's eyes widened as he reflexively blocked the greatsword.
The single-minded determination to land a blow on Pierre's mouth stunned not only Pierre but Loan as well.
'He's mimicking the continuity of the Albrecht swordsmanship in such a brutal way?'
It was thanks to his long-suppressed anger pushing his physical abilities to their absolute limit.
A movement truly befitting Lucas, and for that reason, all the more terrifying to his opponent.
And again! And again! And again!
*CLANG—! CL-CLANG—!*
Faced with a relentless onslaught the likes of which he had never experienced, Pierre was unable to properly unleash his ultimate techniques and was forced entirely on the defensive.
A slugfest no one had anticipated.
Clash, block, clash, barely dodge, and he's on you again, clashing once more.
What was even more baffling was that as the deafening roars echoed, it was Pierre who began to be pushed back, despite exploiting openings to inflict numerous shallow cuts on Lucas's body.
"Eeeek!"
A squeak like a rat's escaped him.
Because the firm target of Pierre's mouth was perfectly set in his mind.
Lucas's strikes were sharper, his momentum more majestic.
Incomprehensible strength and movement exploded forth in succession. He was overwhelming the heir of the Pobel family.
It was no longer possible to block or dodge.
'Cornered.'
Pierre recalled a word he thought would never apply to him.
So now was the time to use the ultimate technique of the Pobel family.
*Swishhh—*
In that instant, a square-shaped brilliance following the Pobel sword path filled Lucas's vision.
But Lucas still had no intention of dodging or blocking.
*SHWIIING—!*
He charged forward, rotating his body as if to throw his sword far away.
The move, likely learned from catching glimpses of the Albrecht family's secret techniques, was...
Crude and clumsy, but with force layered upon force, it was sharp and powerful.
*CLANG—CRACK!*
The sword flew into the sky, followed by an unidentifiable sound.
"Guh..."
Starting from Pierre's open mouth, the upper part of his head was sliced cleanly off.
Lucas came to a stop right at the edge of the cliff.
From his greatsword, a silvery haze shimmered up the blade.
*Thud—*
The eldest son of the Pobel family collapsed.
He was the strongest swordsman of the Pobel family, one who had mastered the secret techniques of a renowned sword-fighting house. His personality was vicious, but his skill was such that he wouldn't lose to anyone, anywhere. How could he die so futilely?
Everyone was thinking the same thing.
A deathly silence fell over the space surrounding the dueling ground.
The one who broke it was Adelaide, the head of the Albrecht family.
"What are you doing, officiator!"
At the sound that thundered through the mountains, the Versa officiator, who had been staring blankly at Lucas, jumped in surprise and struck the bell first.
*Deeeeeeeng—*
But the declaration of victory was never made.
It was because Marquis Maurice had kicked off the ground with a loud bang and thrust his sword into the officiator's mouth.
It was too fast.
Neither Lucas nor even Loan saw how he moved or when he had drawn his sword to commit the heinous act.
It felt as if a black soul had moved first, leaving only a murky figure behind like an afterimage.
"If there's no officiator, it's over, right? No? Is it not? Right? No?"
His tone was completely different.
Chuckling, Marquis Maurice now seemed to be completely steeped in darkness.
From that dense, dark mana, Loan felt a sense of déjà vu. A texture he had seen before.
So, he couldn't help but launch himself toward the dueling ground.
His movements were so sudden that those who caught a glimpse of him felt their vision blur for a moment.
But immediately after.
The members of the Albrecht family drew their swords and aimed them at Maurice, and almost reflexively, the members of the Pobel family drew their swords as well.
The sight of the greatswords and longswords extended toward each other in a line was so imposing it was almost majestic.
Adelaide bellowed once more.
"Have you gone mad? Are you trying to deny the result of a sacred Versa duel? Do you not fear the curse of the gods?"
At those words, Maurice burst into raucous laughter.
As if he had truly gone insane.
After a long, loud laugh, he spread his arms wide and shouted to the heavens.
"A god? Did you say god? Where is such a thing? If there is one, tell it to come out! Huh? Are you there? Are you watching? Me? This me?"
He ended up shrieking at the top of his lungs.
The screeching, ear-grating sound was a mixture of base laughter and inexplicable rage, making it impossible to gauge his emotions.
Just then, something caught Loan's eye.
As Maurice screamed, the darkness consuming him writhed strangely, its form impossible to define.
Specific parts reminiscent of a cow, a lion, and a horse, along with randomly sprouted horns, skin that dripped like boils, and clusters of round things that could have been mouths or eyes.
To Loan, who had always preferred things beautiful and balanced, the sight was utterly grotesque and bizarre.
A vague fear of something he had never before encountered.
While his opponent was distracted, Loan spoke to Lucas, who was catching his breath.
"Lucas. Take care of Sophie."
The words meant that he would face Maurice himself.
Lucas, who trusted his friend completely, quickly descended from the dueling ground while Loan summoned Aul.
A series of small footprints appeared in midair, leading down to the ground like a staircase, and Aul materialized. Loan immediately pulled out what he needed.
It was a mass of atmospheric mana that would help him utilize the insights gained from the Albrecht family.
He was about to send Aul back when.
"Aul?"
Aul didn't return, instead standing there facing Maurice, blankly tilting its head again and again.
As if sensing its gaze, Marquis Maurice, who had continued to grin after his outburst, suddenly turned his head.
He looked at Aul and made a strange expression. It was a mix of recognition, bewilderment, and shock.
"Stolly?"
He had clearly looked at Aul and asked that.
He recognized Aul.
In that case, did Aul recognize him too?
Loan quickly looked at Aul's face.
*Drip—*
A long string of drool was simply trickling from Aul's beak.