Field Trip (3): What Makes That Madwoman Smile?
What the hell was that crazy girl so happy about, grinning like an idiot?
That was the only thought running through my head as I watched Ilisha sprinting right beside me.
“Ilisha! What the fuck are you doing?! Get lost! I can't protect you too!”
“Then just send Ern in alone?”
I tried my damnedest to shake her off as roughly as possible, but she just kept beaming that stupid smile and spouting nonsense.
“I'm stepping up because it's my turn, and you... ngh!”
I wanted to tell her she needed to stay back, but a swarm of magic beasts charged us before I could get the words out.
I sliced through the neck of the charging monstrosity with its twisted body, using the moment to remind her of her place.
“You're the one they're targeting!!!”
“What?! What do you mean, targeting?!”
Lucia freaked out at my words, but now wasn't the time to worry about that.
I had to shove Ilisha back behind the Royal Guard lines right now.
“Yeah, I get it! I'll pull back at the right moment, so don't worry! I'm stronger than you, aren't I?”
But Ilisha swung her aura-infused sword and rattled off that carefree bullshit.
Pull back at the right moment? Against demon worshippers and magic beasts? Like they'd go easy on her?
The words rose to the tip of my tongue.
“Don't worry and just keep running! That dagger guy over there—he's gunning for that thing, right?”
“How do you...”
“Think I wouldn't notice? He's staring right at it!”
“...Whatever, fall back—now!”
“No way!”
“Listen to me, please!”
“You listen to me, Ern!”
Even as she bantered, Ilisha left trails of frost-blue arcs in the air, carving through magic beasts and demon worshippers alike.
Considering it took everything I had—down to coughing up blood—just to muster my aura, she was definitely stronger than me.
If only that power didn't rot faster than summer fruit.
“The sword of Airbalt guards the Empire from demons, and I'm the eldest daughter of Airbalt. So let's go! To slay the fiends!”
In that brief gap, she cleaved two magic beasts in half and declared it all so brightly.
Like she had zero intention of turning back.
Fucking hell.
I gritted my teeth and whipped my lagging body into submission.
Faint white aura bloomed along my blade, while my heart pounded like it was about to burst.
This unstable power would outlast hers, at least.
“...Don't expect me to match your pace!”
“Hehe, same to you!”
It was ridiculous—we were bickering even as life and death hung by a thread—but it proved we still had some breathing room.
Ilisha cleaved through every obstacle with overwhelming aura, clearing the path.
I had to compensate for my lacking aura with swordsmanship and technique.
“Ern, above!”
I knew without her saying.
Without even looking, I grabbed the claw of the magic beast lunging from overhead and slammed it down.
Blood sprayed as it turned into a stain on the ground.
A fusion of the grappling arts from the Holy Kingdom and the beastkin spatial awareness.
I didn't want to show off in front of everyone, but I had no choice.
“Duck!”
Then a chill ran down my spine from behind, and I instinctively dropped low. A blue sword beam tore through the air over my head.
Ilisha's high-density strike froze everything in front solid.
As we smashed through the ice statues with our swords, a warm energy enveloped me.
“This is...”
Only one person could pour this much holy power from this distance.
Cecilia.
She was blessing us.
How, when she couldn't even see us?
The thought was interrupted by a voice from above.
-Left side's open! Go around that way... no, wait! Don't go forward! You have to come back, I said!!
Dorothea's voice.
I glanced up, and there—a massive magic circle like an eye tracked our movements.
...She's sharing her vision with Cecilia through that.
That made things even safer.
“Ilisha, left!”
“I heard it too!”
A quick glance showed Ilisha paler than before.
Her movements were still faster than mine, but she was clearly on the verge of collapse.
And we still had a long way to go.
I ground my teeth.
Just as I wondered if I'd have to carve out my soul itself—
-You two better come back alive, or I'll kill you myself!!!
Lucia's voice boomed.
-Th-the ritual's complete! Now...
-Now?! Then fire it! Die, you fucking bastards!!!
With Lucia's gravelly curses, Dorothea's airborne magic circle glowed red, unleashing lightning and flames.
It targeted the magic beasts and worshippers blocking our path, blasting it open.
The circle cracked and shattered, but Cecilia's blessing held—as if the pursuing gaze lingered.
“Ilisha! You okay?!”
“Thanks to Cess... a little!”
Sheathing and drawing her sword after every swing seemed inefficient.
Yet she was butchering magic beasts faster than I could keep up.
At this rate, we'd reach the Dimension Slasher soon.
That's what I thought.
Until I saw the black line slashed across our path.
“Son of a...”
She'd slashed it open wildly earlier, then held back the beasts on purpose to delay us.
She could even do that?
No time to think—a wave of magic beasts poured out. I reached for the dragon soul etched in mine.
In that split second, blue and golden arcs lit the air.
The yellow and blue lines diced the airborne beasts and worshippers to bits.
“...You two must have a death wish. Are those heads on your shoulders just for show?”
“Your words are so harsh.”
Ilisha, Reinhardt, and his Royal Guard.
They'd been commanding from the rear, realized we were gone, and come to retrieve us.
“Go back.”
“Now?”
“Not too late.”
“No. Just take out that dagger guy, and it's all over.”
How did Ilisha even know that?
No—ignorance would've been worse.
Charging in without knowing the rift closes when it dies or flees? Suicide.
“Proof?”
“Ern went for it... huff.”
Ilisha was breathing raggedly now, clearly wearing down. Frost clung to her right arm, her hand flushed red.
“...It's true. Kill the Dimension Slasher now, and it's like clipping the demon worshippers' wings.”
“How do you know?”
Should I say it?
“...That's not important right now! The demon's about to descend!”
Ilisha swung her sword again, basically telling Reinhardt to shut up and trust her.
“......When you get back safe, be prepared.”
He growled low, then ordered his guard to help me clear the way.
With Reinhardt joining, we closed in on the Dimension Slasher far faster than before.
Almost there—and we spotted the surviving Royal Guard, who'd held out despite isolation.
They'd pressured it enough that it was ringed in countless fine lines, defending its spot.
Dead set on summoning a demon here.
“We're here! So how exactly do you plan to kill that thing?!”
Reinhardt asked as he cleaved beasts from behind.
True—impossible to touch it like that.
Not without cleaving the space whole or leaping it.
I didn't know space-cutting.
Even as a Sword Master pre-regression, I never grasped it.
But a slash that leaps space...
I could do that.
“Ten seconds—exactly ten! Buy me time!”
I gripped my sword and squeezed my eyes shut.
“What a pain in the ass!”
Reinhardt didn't hide his irritation but covered me with Ilisha.
“I'll trust you!”
How much longer until Ilisha collapsed?
I shoved the thought aside.
Perfect focus for this technique with this body.
I sank into myself, deaf to the chaos.
Painful memories flashed.
Faces I failed to protect. Faces who died for me.
Beyond them, I seized one weapon from the countless at my core.
-You humans... see differently than we dragons. Ah, then this will do. I'll lend you my eyes... behold. How we view the world.
The dragon's words from our past talk echoed.
The dragon entrusted me its eyes.
Etched into my soul.
So.
Even if my eyes burst.
To leap space.
I awakened the dragon's eyes.
Opening one, pain like red-hot coals in the socket—and a bizarre world unfolded.
Colors and motion stripped away, everything schematized to bare essence.
Outside time's flow, space's bounds.
From the world's outer axis, permitted only to dragons.
One step—and I leaped the Dimension Slasher's fine lines in the air.
That was it.
Vision blacked out. Something popped.
Eye burst, probably.
I opened the other. The Slasher right in front.
No hesitation—I swung my aura-charged blade.
The strike gave no chance to react. Its head flew.
I grabbed the head, hacked the torso, legs, everything.
Mashed it to pieces. No resurrection possible.
Done.
The demon worshipper set to torment humanity perished pathetically.
Rifts in the air vanished instantly.
Beasts already out we'd handle, but no more would come.
And that demon-summoning rift would close.
...It should.
Why wasn't it closing?
———
My body was a wreck.
No—wreck didn't cover it.
My right arm gripping the sword had gone haywire ages ago.
Sensation numb, but the pain endless.
Deep inside, something kept tearing and shattering. From fingertips to elbow, it felt alien, anesthetized.
Lungs were worse.
Every inhale grew ice shards inside. Every exhale brought blood's metallic reek up my throat.
Body ice-cold, burning hot.
Blood slushified, icy with frost chunks.
“Cough, hack...”
Coughing brought dark red, chilled blood spilling from my mouth.
What a shitshow.
...After burning ether like that, this was just the start.
Body'd get worse. Overdrawn like that, bedridden for days.
But it was fine.
Ern pulled it off.
Protagonist mashed the Dimension Slasher, so the demon rift closes.
Guards handle the rest.
I'd collapse dramatically, catch Cecilia's tears at the right moment.
Cecilia pale with horror at my state, Ern blaming himself with a stiff face, Lucia cursing through teary eyes, Dorothea trembling.
Ah.
Perfect picture.
Just imagining it was bliss.
Lost in hazy thoughts, about to flop down.
The air. The rift.
Still gaping. Hmm. Why won't it close?