The Lone Knight's Final Vow
Eclipse. “Ha, haha.” The knight let out a hollow laugh. The emotion filling his eyes was so clear that anyone who looked could recognize it at once. Despair. The feeling that drags a person down into the abyss. With despair in his eyes, he witnessed the catastrophe unfolding before him.
“Hihihihihi!”
“Kyaaaak!”
“Kill them! Kill every last one!”
“No! Please spare me! I beg you…”
Driven mad, no longer knowing who they were. People who only yesterday had supported one another and burned with the will to survive were now slaughtering each other. The massacre did not last long. The insane killed one another, and in the end they drove blades into their own throats. As if fleeing. As if they had seen things that should never be seen.
The knight could not even think of stopping them. It was only natural. Once the inevitable had already occurred, there was no way to prevent it. No one who laid eyes on those beings could keep their sanity. No one except him.
And in this moment, the only living, breathing soul left in the world was him.
The knight gazed at the monster before him. People did not call that monster a monster. It was Terror. The very incarnation of fear that ravaged and tore apart the human world, driving everyone within it to madness.
Anyone who looked upon Terror’s form could not maintain their reason, no matter how resolute their mind. For some unknown reason, he alone could preserve his sanity. Yet what did it matter? Humanity had already been wiped out, leaving only him.
It had been a peaceful world. Or at least, on the surface it had appeared peaceful. There were many kingdoms and an empire as well. Though disputes arose between them, any looming threat of war would quickly subside. The swelling kingdoms and empire schemed to drag one another down from below, yet they never resorted to total war.
Within that world, the knight had pursued nobility according to his own beliefs. No—more precisely, he had once been nothing but a vagrant. A boy with nothing, poor and weak, writhing in loneliness and yearning for human warmth. For such a vagrant to become a knight was as impossible as spotting a beggar who resembled oneself and telling that beggar to play the part of a prince.
One day, while begging in front of a ramshackle building in the slums, he happened to witness a scene. An old knight was sharing food with children from the same slum. Naturally, the vagrant approached, hoping to lean on that small kindness.
The warm bread the old knight offered was deeply moving. Afterward, he began to watch the old knight’s every action, hoping the man would give him something again. In doing so, he learned something. Wherever the old knight went, laughter bloomed and happiness welled up. He always moved for the sake of others and always fought against injustice, even with his aged body.
One day, demonic beasts invaded the city. The old knight stood at the forefront and drove them back. He risked his life again and again to save people. After that, the vagrant thought the old knight shone like light. That thought soon became a wish. Even if he was only a street vagrant now—even if he witnessed every filthy sight, performed every filthy deed, and ate dirty food—he wanted to become a knight like that.
The vagrant summoned the greatest courage of his life and spoke to the knight. In truth, for a mere vagrant to address a knight first was a grave breach of etiquette. Some ill-tempered knights thought vagrants disgusting and killed them without hesitation. Yet the vagrant spoke to the knight anyway, staking his life on it.
The knight, remembering the boy, asked, “Yes. What do you need that you have come? Bread again, like last time?”
“No.”
“Then what do you need, young friend?”
“I want to become a knight too.”
“A knight, you say. That is good. But it will be just as difficult and painful. A knight is noble only in fantasy; it is not a noble profession. Your life will be at risk more often than not, and if you fall under a wicked lord you will suffer every hardship imaginable. Do you still wish to be a knight?”
“Yes.”
The old knight was a peculiar man. He did not ask how a vagrant dared dream of knighthood. He simply inquired after the boy’s will.
“Very well. From today onward, you are my disciple.”
The knight looked at the vagrant—no, the boy—with genuine pleasure. That day, the boy became the old knight’s disciple.
“Now that I think of it, I have not yet heard your name. What is it?”
“I don’t have one.”
“I see. Then it wouldn’t be bad for me to give you one.”
“A name… you mean?”
“Yes.”
It was customary to name a new disciple on the day he was taken in, but the boy felt no particular discomfort at having no name. Being called “hey” had always been enough. Still, he could not remain nameless forever. So the old knight resolved to give the boy a name.
The old knight looked around for something suitable to base the name on, but nothing seemed fitting. Because he wanted to give his first disciple a name of deep meaning, and because he refused to use something commonplace that rolled along the roadside, the knight ultimately failed to name the boy that day.
Yet he was able to create the boy’s name sooner than expected. The sky suddenly darkened. Wondering if rain clouds were gathering, the old knight looked up and let out a sigh of wonder.
“By the heavens. What a marvelous sight.”
The sun had been dyed black. The moon had covered the sun. A solar eclipse. Upon seeing that spectacle, the old knight immediately decided on the boy’s name. To think such an event occurred on the very day he intended to name him. Believing it a kind of miracle, the old knight spoke without hesitation.
“From today, your name is Eclipse. Ah, you have no surname. Then we shall use mine. Since you are a child I have taken in, it is only right that I pass my surname on to you.”
“A surname…?”
“Yes. You are Eclipse Lulandel.”
Thus the boy became Eclipse Lulandel.
The knight—no, Eclipse—stared straight ahead. Terror possessed a hideous shape. It felt like something that did not belong to this world. Merely looking at it made his mind feel worn away and polluted. Yet he raised his sword. The blade was already broken, but the knight swung it toward Terror without the slightest hesitation.
A fierce strike. A blow powerful enough to shake heaven and earth erupted from his sword. Terror answered by thrusting out its fist. The world trembled for an instant.
Eclipse, whose internals had been shattered by the previous clash, coughed blood from his lips and lifted his sword once more. He was resolved to kill the Terror before his eyes even if it cost him his life. But his sword never reached it. Terror swatted aside the broken greatsword, seized Eclipse in its grip, and hurled him away.
“Keuk!”
Eclipse could only vomit blood. Shards of his crushed organs flew from his mouth. His vision was slowly, slowly fading to black.
Is this how I die?
Terror thrust its hideous form directly into Eclipse’s face and stared at him with an unreadable expression. At the moment death stood before him, Eclipse reflected on the past.
When had it begun? When had everything gone wrong? From the moment Terror opened the gate to the world? No. Even before that, humans had already begun to distrust one another. It remained the same after Terror’s invasion. Unity never formed. Faced with an overwhelming foe, humanity chose division over solidarity and busied itself with fleeing from Terror.
Amid such ugliness, Eclipse alone had opposed Terror. Countless battles had been fought—against those corrupted into Minions of Terror, and sometimes against Terror itself when it came to eliminate him. In those battles, people found hope in Eclipse. Those who felt that hope entrusted themselves to him. Such forces grew without end. Renowned powerhouses, nobles who commanded mighty followers—everyone sought Eclipse’s protection, and he helped them all.
Some had once committed ugly deeds. Some had committed sins too vile to speak aloud. Yet Eclipse still protected and guided them. Because the nobility his master had spoken of was, in the end, about people.
“What is nobility?”
“The right thing you pursue. The answer you must one day discover.”
“I still don’t understand.”
“That is fine.”
“What was the nobility you pursued, Master?”
Eclipse had asked his master.
“I wanted to save people. I wanted to reach out to the lonely. I did not want to turn a blind eye to injustice. I believed that was the duty of a knight. No matter how ugly the person, I reached out to save them. The lonely exist everywhere in the world. I wished to become the one who lights their path.”
“Is that… possible?”
“It may be impossible. Nevertheless, I strove to live that way. And that is the value I believed to be nobility. I do not know what value you will find. You will walk a different road from mine. Therefore… take heart.”
Eclipse still did not know what nobility he ought to pursue. Therefore he had lived by the nobility his master described. But the result had been the extinction of humanity. It was the consequence of reaching out to everyone alone.
Looking back on his life, Eclipse finally realized the truth.
I was wrong. The reason Master could pursue nobility was because the world had not yet lost its nobility.
He recalled the hideous scenes he had witnessed. Those who offered others to Terror to save themselves. The man who had staked his kingdom’s fate, then submitted to Terror and offered his entire nation in exchange for his own life. Naturally, the moment he witnessed Terror he went mad and became one of its minions.
There were far too many rotten humans. In trying to save even them, I failed to save those who truly needed saving.
What was nobility, really? It was a value that could only flourish in a world at peace. Expecting nobility from those who had already lost it was a luxury. Eclipse began to regret that he should have subjugated the powerful. He should have forced them to submit and united humanity.
But it was already too late. Too late to turn back.
If there is such a thing as a next life…
He stared at the approaching Terror and opened his eyes wide.
I will not live that way again.
When he made that vow and accepted death, a voice rang out.
At the moment the voice reached him, Eclipse was enveloped in brilliant light before Terror, and he felt his vision growing dark.