Chapter 85
Chapter 85
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 85
Chapter Title: Knight Elis
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It was ironic.
Why was she here?
Why was she killing them while acting like that?
No, wait-why am I here?
Why have we come back to life?
Elis, gripping her spear, wanted to ask the Elis wielding a sword. But she didn't.
"You're just like me, deep down."
Gazing at the countless corpses of herself scattered everywhere, spear-wielding Elis could guess how many questions the sword-wielding one must have fielded up to now. Elis lowered her spear.
She wanted to talk. That was her way of showing she had no will to fight-but the knight saw it differently.
"I am Elis Hope of the Sonain Empire's 2nd Knight Order."
Empire? The lone knight who named herself seemed to have reclaimed her sword and stirred some memories from her past life. And the madness-ridden Elis felt it too.
"Right... I was a knight."
"The madness dripping from your eyes must never spread into the world."
"Empire, Hero. Yeah. I was with the Hero..."
Elis walked toward the sword-wielding knight. She wanted to paint a picture of her past self-sword in hand-and the comrades around her, now surfacing from the depths of memory as she watched herself wield that blade.
"And without it, the memories won't connect."
"Ah, we were crossing the Granblad Great Canyon. You know, in Helred on the eastern continent."
"So I'll wipe away those tears first."
Knight's Spear Piercing the Eyes.
Shweee!
In an instant, the sword-shield-like until then-spiraled upward from its center, elongating into a spear-like form and shooting forth. It thrust out like a lance, a thin beam of purple light aimed straight at Elis.
But she'd dodged the moment the sword began to change shape, so it missed.
"Kgh!"
Her right ear exploded in tearing pain, incinerated in a flash. Elis raised her spear.
"That's my sword. Hand it over."
"Overcome by madness, are you? I am you. The you with the tears wiped away and the sword reclaimed."
The knight had faced countless Elises who made it this far. But this was the first one even attempting something like conversation.
Maybe this Elis had followed the same path she had-witnessing the enemy she'd once fought alongside the Hero.
"Looks like this time, I killed the pus-filled lump."
She didn't know how memory truly worked. Why memories didn't connect once madness was purged. Why willpower emerged each time memories resurfaced. Why strength grew with that will.
"Do you know what memories I reclaimed when I took back my sword?"
"That's my sword!"
Elis charged at the knight. She knew full well she couldn't match one who'd reclaimed her sword-but nothing else came to mind.
Her madness had overtaken her will.
"Die!"
Elis thrust her spear at the knight, who effortlessly dodged while continuing on about memories.
"Every time I came back to life, I saw Iveldra. After countless climbs-I lost track-I finally sank into the abyss. So I begged her. To grant me death."
"Give it back!"
"That's when I first descended the mountain without burying my madness. And only when death loomed did I think to give it my all. I wanted to live. So I killed, and reclaimed my sword."
"Give me my memories... Gah!"
The knight, casually evading Elis's strikes, suddenly grabbed her spear with her free hand and drove her knee into Elis's gut.
Looking down at Elis, the knight spat out the heavy truth.
"And I found my memories. The one who killed me... was the very master Iveldra serves."
"Hah, what?"
Elis reeled from the shock that launched her into the air and the terror of that truth, on the verge of blacking out-then realization hit.
Remove the madness, and memories don't connect. That meant the knight had no intention of killing her until the madness was gone. And she couldn't beat the knight. So...
"Demon King. We were devoured by him, somehow revived. But we don't have to follow Iveldra. She's only helping us for him. So if I keep blocking the madness from descending the ridge here, somehow, our revenge..."
"You're not going to kill me, are you?"
Elis lifted her head with a sly grin, playing fully possessed by madness. The knight was visibly rattled. That alone proved her question right.
"Even with the sword, even reclaiming all memories-it's still too much to stop the madness forever. You must have been waiting for one of us who remembered enough to talk. Right?"
Her right eye bloodshot red from the head trauma of taking that spear to the ear, Elis pressed the knight, who had no choice but to falter.
Truth be told, the knight had considered it. If she could gradually synchronize her other selves with her own, even a single flame might let her climb again and strike at Iveldra. And if she survived that, she could abandon the madness and return to human villages with the others.
"Then why won't you listen? Don't you understand me?"
The knight raised her sword again. Wrong again. This time, she dies. Right now.
"You can't beat me!"
Knight's Spear Piercing the Eyes.
"Of course not."
As the knight extended her sword to fire another beam, Elis lunged forward-straight at the blade's tip.
"So wait for me."
Kwachak!
The knight couldn't stop the thrust.
Clutching her right eye, Elis barreled into the knight's sword at blinding speed. The blade pierced beside her nose, cheekbone first-tearing through facial bones and muscle in its shape, the hole widening unnoticed until her head burst.
Dead.
"Damn it."
Thick blood oozed from the head impaled on her sword, trickling down Elis's corpse. The knight swung her blade to fling the body aside. Most corpses here had holes under their right eyes, but this one's massive wound added one more to the gorge's lowest crevice at the peak's base.
"El Miflassi..."
The knight spun her sword into a disc, laid it atop the corpse, and offered a brief prayer to the goddess.
***
If wielding the sword revived memories, then being pierced by it should too.
For some reason, this death didn't lead to immediate revival-just the familiar darkness. Had she failed? Elis felt more disappointment than anxiety.
She'd thought that covering her right eye and dying swiftly would let her return with memories intact, even if she couldn't win.
Was it all over now? Elis closed her eyes in the familiar void.
But could you even close your eyes in this unreal darkness-or know you had them? Then what was this pitch-black she perceived? Elis reached out toward it.
Thump.
A clear heartbeat. That's when Elis realized why this darkness felt so familiar. It was a life. Another heart.
Demon King... This is the memory of being inside him.
Elis looked up, checking for others. Only now, acclimated to the dark, did she spot denser shadows clinging like silhouettes.
Seven illusory seats in a circle, two empty-five shadows remained.
Iron-like things writhed like blooming flames, dancing to the heartbeat. Elis didn't yet grasp they were kin of sin.
She reached for the nearest one. It met her touch, taking on color-crimson like blood, enveloping her.
"Ah."
Then pure white filled her vision.
Elis awoke amid gently falling snow, brushed it off, and headed for the exit between the mounds. There stood Rah-the embodiment of ravenous madness-pilgrims dead before her, and Iveldra.
Still stealing black tears from Rah to fuel the madness, Iveldra sensed something different about this Elis.
"What happened, Elis?"
Ignoring the question, Elis approached Rah and touched it. A profound familiarity washed over her-no, a clear sense of kinship.
"What... am I?"
Iveldra answered as she had at their first meeting.
"I am Iveldra, the dark Mir symbolizing death. And your name in life was Elis Hope."
"No, not who I was-what I am now. I was killed and devoured by the one you serve. What have I become?"
Elis looked ready to cry. Iveldra drew her into comforting darkness once more.
"You were Elis Hope. Now, you are Nacham-the name of vengeance, embodying wrath."
Another kin of sin, Vengeance, had reclaimed her name amid the madness-bearing throng.
"Kin of sin, shall I grant you death?"
At Iveldra's gentle question to the newly awakened kin, Elis pulled away.
"No. Bury my madness again, please."
Iveldra smeared black tears beneath her right eye. She could feel it-this Elis was changed. In her connected memories, blazing wrath had finally taken a name. Elis gathered all the pilgrims' weapons.
Kin of sin or whatever-she didn't care anymore.
"This time, I'll reclaim my sword and memories for sure. Off I go again."
And so began Elis's fifth attempt to descend the mountain.