The Brand (11)
"Out of my way!"
Anyone who heard that Aura-laden roar would have frozen where they stood. It was an overwhelming presence, the kind that shattered an opponent's will in a single breath — the very image of a war god made flesh. Carving her way through the endless tide of golems, Rebecca drove toward the heart of the Magic Tower.
The war-lion bellowed and surged forward at a dead run. Even then, her rapier's path hunted nothing but weak points. The blade punched through a golem's tiny core and burst from the other side.
"S-stop her!"
This time the Aura she unleashed struck the ground and detonated. A blinding flash, an ear-splitting boom, the earth itself shuddering beneath them. The mages who had barred her path never even finished chanting their binding spell; they were hurled away, tumbling across the dirt.
Holding back so I don't kill them is the hard part. I'd almost rather they were enemy soldiers—
The thought had barely formed when—
"—?!"
A pain like a shovel scooping her organs up toward her throat tore through her, and she vomited a handful of blood. It was a hideous sensation, as if maggots were writhing through every corner of her viscera, gnawing as they went. Something that desecrated the dignity of flesh had wormed its way between every bone and every muscle that made up her body.
Damn it. At this rate...
It hurt. It just hurt like hell. She couldn't even think of another way to put it. Had she ever been exposed to Decay Mana for this long? Cold sweat poured down her. Her vision blurred. The ringing in her ears swelled and swelled. A consciousness at its limit was urging Rebecca to just pass out already.
I pass out after the child is safely at the Magic Tower. Not before.
Every inhale, every exhale, was agony. It felt like swallowing burnt ash — and for a knight who channeled Aura through breathing techniques, that was fatal.
......?
A single droplet struck the bridge of her nose. And from that one drop, a winter rain that cut like blades began to pour.
Aratein, I beg you. Stay with this child.
Fearing the girl's body heat would drop, she pulled her closer against her chest. But the tighter she held, the more the pain climbed, as if commanding her to push the child away. If she was in this state from nothing more than indirect exposure, the agony the child herself was enduring was beyond imagining.
"There! She's over there!"
"—!"
Dammit. They caught up already. Abandon this route, take a detour—
"Ah... rain."
And in that instant.
"It's rain. The rain is falling."
The child had opened her eyes.
"Ramon, I finally did it."
But it was not Rebecca those eyes saw.
"Everyone... I can put out the fire now."
A sudden, tremendous force shoved her away, and she lost the child from her arms. It happened in the blink of an eye. The girl tumbled from the galloping lion and rolled through rain-soaked mud.
"My lady!"
Her heart dropped. She leapt down at once and gathered the child up.
"I have to go. I have to go now. I have to go home."
The girl crawled across the ground, muttering like a sick parrot. Pale green hair fanned out across a puddle.
"They're calling me. My friends... they're calling me..."
Rebecca all but dragged her back and locked her in her arms. The struggling grew worse. Sporadic groans mixed with the girl's weeping.
"Let me go, please, please let me go...! I'm begging you, I'm sorry, I was wrong, it doesn't hurt, I'm not scared, I won't cry, I won't scream anymore, I'll sing better, I'll do anything you tell me. I'll put out the fire. I can put it out. Please let me put it out!"
The child wailed as if the words themselves were a scream.
"They're screaming. They say it's hot, it hurts so much. Please don't kill them, they're my friends. Save them. Please save them. I'll die as many more times as the friends you spare. I won't break. Thanks to the blessing you gave me, Sir Knight, I can die again and again!"
The child's body shook and shook. Rebecca held her tight, as if gripping something that was about to slip through her fingers and run out onto the ground.
"It's all right. Please. It's all right. I... I..."
The words broke apart before they could finish. Blood welled from her bitten lip. Was this truly all she could say? Never had her own powerlessness felt so bitterly, so intolerably shameful.
Thunder crashed through the pouring rain.
"Ramon, where are you?"
How much time passed, she couldn't tell. The struggling weakened as the child's strength gave out.
"It's dark. Don't leave me here alone."
"Look at me, my lady. We have to get out of here first."
When the child finally lifted her head—
"Mom, Dad... where are you...?"
What Rebecca saw was—
"I can't see. It's dark. I can't see anything."
—the girl's eyes, turned pitch black.
"!"
Tears of blood poured down her face.
"My lady, please, stay with—"
"Ah. Yes, Sir Knight. There you are."
Before she could do a thing, the child savagely bit into the back of her own hand.
"Here. It's right here."
She held out the dripping, blood-bright back of her hand as if presenting a gift.
She smiled as she said it.
"D-Decay Mana...!"
"Black magic! It's black magic!"
A black swamp bloomed beneath the mages who had drawn the encirclement tight.
"L-Lady Rebecca! This way!"
"At this rate we'll be overrun! Mages, flame magic—"
"Damn it, listen to me, you mages! I'll kill every last one of you who so much as lays a finger on that child!"
The method for dealing with Decay Mana was, unexpectedly, simple. You destroyed its source.
"W-what do we do?!"
"Kh...! We cannot stand by and watch Decay Mana flow into the residential quarter. We will protect what is ours! Outers, prepare Flame Spear!"
"But Lady Rebecca—!"
"She is the one shielding the source of the Decay Mana! There will be no exceptions! Did you not hear the Second Order's command? Third-circle magic: Flame Spear!"
The situation hung on a knife's edge. The mages glanced at one another, restless and unwilling, and began the cast anyway. A magic circle of flame slowly took shape before their staves. Rebecca, her eyes bloodshot and raw, dragged up every last scrap of Aura for a desperate defense.
—Ah.
But the limit she had been outrunning found her at last. Her body slipped the reins of her mind.
"......"
Consciousness hanging by a thread, the knight crumpled. Even then, she did not let go of her sword.
Forgive me, Your Majesty.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Her heartbeat slammed against her eardrums.
"...O spear of flame that pierces my enemies..."
The mages' chanting reached her with unnatural clarity. Time itself seemed to slow.
And then, in the instant before the spell could complete, something came beating down from the sky and crashed over the mages.
"Ghk?! What in the— Get off! Get away!"
The whole area dissolved into chaos.
You came again.
A flock of owls, from somewhere, from nowhere. And in the sliver of time they carved open, someone spatially transferred in — dropping to a knee before her fallen form.
"......?"
What she felt was an overwhelming tide of mana. What she saw was the hem of a white robe, and a pair of shoes. She wrung out the last of her strength and lifted her head—
"You've done well, Vice Commander."
To think that irritating face could look so welcome. That was the last thought the knight had before her consciousness sank into the dark.
Leaving the unconscious knight behind her, Seris looked down at the child and murmured.
An ancient curse of darkness.
It isolates the target — and inflicts severe pain on anyone who attempts to help them.
A wandering through eternal night.
"Lady Mage?"
The child turned toward the sound, but her sightless eyes sent her gaze slightly off, her head cocked at an odd angle.
"Ah. Today is a happy day."
The child, eaten through by the curse, was beaming. Tears of blood ran down a face that said she could not possibly be happier than this.
"I'm sorry I'm late."
"No! How long will you stay today?"
Seris's stomach turned. She could not bring herself to look the child in the face.
"I-I waited for you, Lady Mage! I won't lie anymore! I won't cry that it hurts! I won't scream either! I can smile now. I mean it! I promise! I won't beg you to kill me! I won't give up!"
Broken. Thoroughly, completely broken.
"......"
"L-Lady Mage? Where are you?"
When no answer came, her breathing went ragged. The anxiety spiked to its extreme in a single heartbeat.
"Don't go, don't go...! Don't go, don't go...!"
The child groped at the empty air, and before long collapsed to the ground with a wet slap.
"I can birth one for you! A new curse!"
"......"
"Please, engrave it on my body...! I'll do it!"
The wretched, endless despair the child was living through — it looked, to Seris, very much like her own hatred of black magic.
"I'm sorry. I truly am."
Sorry for what, exactly? For arriving too late? For mistaking her for a demon? For loosing killing intent in her mana without meaning to? For failing to wipe black magic from the face of this continent? Or was it, rather, an apology for wanting a child to live — a child for whom dying might have been the kinder thing?
"Come forth, O light of the moon."
"Silver radiance of Selene, that drives out the curse..."
⟨ Selene's Silver Radiance ⟩
A low incantation. Gentle light gathered upon her staff.