Holy Fire (5)
The instant Ain saw the message floating before his eyes, a curse tore out of him before he could stop it.
"You've gotta be fucking kidding me."
The last time he had seen a message anything like that, the opponent had been a chimera cooked up by a black mage. A lesser chimera. For all that unimpressive name, the thing had nearly wiped out Ain and his entire party not long ago. And now the black-robed figure radiating pitch-dark energy in front of him carried a title that wasn't even in the same universe.
"Damn it. Nothing's worse than when some edgelord title turns out to be real..."
"Ain, this is not the time for that nonsense!"
Er cut him off, forcing her trembling hands to still.
"My skin is crawling. If that's from the mana he's generating..."
"...Is that why Master split us off?"
"What do you mean?"
Ain turned to Jina, who had spoken as though something had just clicked into place.
"She split us off?"
"Ain, she even sent you over to our side. Normally she wouldn't have let you take a single step away from her."
"Then that means..."
"She knew."
Haru's eyes were unusually sharp as she focused her mana through her gaze.
"The flames. Still here."
"Flames?"
Ain looked around. Just as Haru had said, a ring of white fire still burned around them, unextinguished, standing guard. The flames were neither hot nor fierce — little more than dying embers. And yet any mana that touched them burned away almost entirely, leaving only the faintest traces to reach the party.
Sensing that her disciples had caught on, Veronica spoke in a low voice, greatsword in hand.
"Ain. Stay right where you are. I'll deal with this shortly."
"What the hell are you talking about all of a sudden?!"
"I said watch!!"
With that, Veronica flicked her greatsword once and drove it straight at her opponent. A greatsword was never meant for thrusting. Heavy weapons like that were built to crush an enemy under their own weight, and using a massive blade as a piercing weapon should have halved both its speed and its power. That was common sense. But not Veronica's sword. She sank the greatsword into her opponent's abdomen with a motion so light it might have been a rapier — a flash of silver.
Black lightning erupted from the silver greatsword, crackling as it tore outward in every direction.
"A barrier like that...?!"
"You... are not the light..."
Veronica's lips curled into a smirk as Deimos caught her strike. He swept a skeletal hand through the air, conjuring something like a black veil before himself.
"Where... is the light...!!!"
"There's one last light you'll get to see!!"
White flame bloomed along Veronica's blade and ripped through the veil Deimos had woven. Fire followed the arc of her sword. The moment the barrier between them vanished, Deimos's life became as fleeting as a mayfly's.
Bone Wall
The bone fragments Deimos scattered hardened into a massive barrier that stopped Veronica's blade. And that was not all. A pillar of bone erupted from beneath the caster's feet and hoisted Deimos high into the air. Veronica smashed through the bones blocking her sword and clicked her tongue, as if the whole thing were a nuisance.
"A black mage, daring to reach for the sky."
"You are not the light!!!"
Deimos spread both arms faster than Veronica could shatter the pillar. The earth trembled. The air convulsed. The mana saturating the area swirled into a vortex and began pouring into his hands.
"I don't think so!!"
Veronica dismissed the greatsword from her grip, stretched out her left arm, and made a drawing motion with her right. A white bow materialized in her hand. The arrow of light formed from her own mana was not aimed at Deimos. The bone shields beginning to orbit around him were something her archery would never pierce. Her specialty was close combat, not sniping with a bow. But even with her unconfident marksmanship, there was something she could do well enough. The dark mana gathering above Deimos's head had a center — a massive clump of power coalescing at its heart. Dispersing that much, she could manage.
White light shot from Veronica's fingertips. A flash crossed the empty air as if it would punch through the heavens themselves, spearing the ominous black sphere and shattering it to pieces. The coalescing mass lost its shape and exploded outward. But even that was not permitted. White flames coiled around the dispersing mana and burned it away, scattered across the sky like stars.
"...Incredible."
The word of awe slipped from Haru's lips. Of everyone present, she could read the collision of divine power and mana more clearly than anyone.
"She pierced the exact center of the gathering mana... drove her own mana into the gaps so it couldn't re-form..."
"...I don't understand anything that complicated, but I can tell it's incredible."
Even knowing Veronica was not an enemy, Er felt the oppressive weight of every movement. She gripped her sword hilt until her knuckles went white.
"...What would it take to become that strong?"
"It's impossible."
"...Ain."
It was Ain who answered. For the first time since Veronica had come to Karpe, he looked at her with eyes that held nothing at all.
"She's spent hundreds of years training with a single purpose — to carry out the will of God. Catching up to that? Not through any ordinary means."
"...Elves live a long time."
Veronica's disciples knew her strength came from the experience and training of a long life. Perhaps that was why they had given up on ever reaching her. She was simply strong. No matter what they did, they could never catch her. That thought cut deeper for Jina than it did for Ain. She was the one who had learned martial arts from Veronica directly, who had watched her master's skill from the closest possible distance.
"...Master is the strongest."
She said it with shining eyes, watching her master face the black mage.
"...Then is there anyone stronger than Lady Veronica?"
"Well. That's hard to say."
"There are a lot of people in this world. Some who've lived even longer than Master. And... there was someone who might have surpassed her on talent alone."
A deep emotion settled in Ain's eyes at Jina's words. He shook his head twice, wiped the feeling away, and spoke.
"But there's one thing I'm sure of."
He watched the silver Holy Knight dismiss her bow and draw a massive war hammer.
"That black mage bastard isn't even in her league."
The war hammer slammed into the bone pillar with an earsplitting crash. Cracks raced across the entire column in an instant, and it collapsed a heartbeat later. Deimos, realizing his foothold was gone, unleashed a burst of dark mana, about to attempt something —
"Stop with the weird shit and just die."
Her violet eyes flashed as she leapt high, and the war hammer smashed into Deimos's body. A shriek that could not be called language tore from his throat. Like a shattered vessel, he went flying, scattering fragments of pitch-black mana, and slammed into the ground with a heavy crash.
The mana he had already flung across the field was nearly gone. Whatever had touched the Holy Fire wreathing Veronica's body had burned away, and it could no longer be of any use to him. Looking down at the black robe crumpled in the crater it had made, Veronica swapped her war hammer for a longsword.
"Well then. Time for confession. Tell me everything you know, and then you can die."
Deimos simply stared at her. A Holy Knight clad in pure white flame. Even through the violence of combat, she had not lost a shred of that noble bearing — the Sword of God. He studied her as if taking her apart, and spoke in a voice thick and muddy.
"Silver... you are silver that never touched the light..."
"...That's not the new story I was hoping to hear."
"Silver cannot become light... Light, give me the light... that radiance, into my hands...!!"
The moment he raised those skeletal hands, Veronica's longsword swept out without hesitation and severed both of them. Could what erupted from the stumps even be called blood? Something black as ink exploded from the severed wrists, reeking of something far worse than the stench of gore. Veronica's face twisted.
"You've killed quite a few, haven't you. How many people died by those filthy hands?"
She asked knowing that black liquid was blood corrupted by mana.
"On the path to finding the light... such things do not matter..."
"Don't make me laugh. A black mage who deserves to die has no business speaking of light."
A sickening slice — and the hood covering Deimos's face was cut away. The hood had almost certainly been enchanted to conceal him. Once it was gone, what the sunlight revealed was an old man's face, more than half of it swallowed by dark age spots. But the whites of both eyes were stained black, and the crimson pupils staring out of them could not possibly belong to a human being.
"Speak, black mage. Where is the Black Magic Tower now?"
Flame bloomed along Veronica's blade as she asked, not a trace of humor on her face.
"I know you lot crawled underground. But... this time is different from before. Not even a single common grunt has been caught. Speak, black mage. Where is the Black Magic Tower? And... why have you changed?"
"To find the light... is my mission... for that purpose, this body..."
"...As expected, you won't answer easily. Fine then. I'll cut off your limbs, sever your meridians, and drag you to the temple."
The inquisitors of the Grand Cathedral possessed skills that put even Veronica to shame. No matter how high-ranking a black mage, they would not last without coughing up information. Thinking this, Veronica moved her sword to take his remaining limbs —
"O Silver... where is the light..."
Even with both hands already gone, Deimos did not so much as flinch. He turned those black-and-crimson eyes on Veronica.
"The light was here. I'm certain of it... on this land, on this earth, the light...!"
"...I wouldn't know."
At Deimos's words, Veronica did not so much as shift her gaze. She knew that every movement she made could give the black mage information. She had been planning to gouge out both his eyes first, so he could not catch even the slightest hint.
"Does the light... exist...?"
The moment those words left his lips, Deimos's mouth split into a wide, tearing grin.
Mana convulsed. The sunlight blanketing the earth began to fade. The white flames that had been burning vanished as if they had never been, and in their place came a darkness so thick it threatened to choke the breath from their lungs.
"Damn it, if this happens...!"
"O Light..."
"Try to erase me. Try to erase this darkness...!!!"
Veronica severed Deimos's neck as he spoke those words. Information mattered — but making sure a black mage could not finish whatever he had started mattered more. With a practiced motion, she separated his head from his body. And in that instant —
The old man's head, still sailing through the air, uttered those words.
And the sun set.