Even a Scoundrel Gets Tired

129 – Not Yet Finished

*Kaga-gang*—

The sound of steel grinding against steel echoed,

sparks erupting in brilliant flashes,

ebony light painting the canvas of the sky.

Within the countless streaks of black radiance,

a plume of violet light surged upwards.

And from its heart, a single blade lunged forth.

“aaagh… Help me, Kamang-ah!!”

“No, but really, who *are* you…?!”

With a grinding *ka-gak*,

she parried the blade aimed at the dark-haired girl.

Just what was the identity of this girl, and

why had she emerged from my own throat?

Still, questions lingered, unanswered.

But for now, at least for the moment, there was no time to dwell on them.

“Guaaa!!!”

I was certain I had blocked it flawlessly,

but despite that assurance,

I was being pushed back, swords locked together.

The difference in sheer physical ability,

that alone was overwhelming me,

and that single fact meant

I couldn’t win against him.

Not if I kept fighting like this.

“Ugh…?”

“This way, …Brother.”

Tilting his violet blade upwards, brimming with raw power,

his sword grazed my hair as it passed by.

Yes, I cannot win.

Not with a simple contest of strength.

But I also couldn’t fight endlessly, like I used to.

My mana remained

stubbornly still.

‘I hastily closed the status window earlier, so I can’t see the reason…’

“Gueueueue!!”

“…!”

As though he never tires,

the blade once again aimed for me.

I gripped my dagger tighter, meeting his attack once more.

The key here is

movement that seeks ＜i＞flow＜/i＞ over ＜i＞force＜/i＞.

Choosing to deflect rather than confront,

and to evade rather than simply deflect.

Well, put nicely, it’s

avoiding a head-on collision,

but to put it bluntly,

it’s just being scared.

But what can I do?

Criticism is something you can only receive if you’re alive.

And in my current condition, enduring like this was all I could manage.

“You little rats!!!”

The one mercy, if it could be called that, was that his reason now seemed to be failing him.

Proof of this was how the swordsmanship, so sharp and structured only moments before, began to dissolve into chaos.

“Uaaargh!!!”

“hhhng…!”

Compared to before,

it was an endlessly inferior style,

focused solely on striking,

swinging, and slashing wherever it might land,

but his vastly improved physical abilities more than compensated for it all.

Even just deflecting blows,

my wrist throbbed with a maddening ache.

“May the Primordial Light protect the children of this earth…”

As if sensing my condition,

a warm, divine power flowed into me,

desperate to restore

my wrist to its normal state.

Frankly speaking,

I still wasn’t keen on the divine power,

but in a situation like this,

I had no choice but to accept it grudgingly.

With my wrist now completely free of pain, I deflected another attack,

continuing to draw his attention,

to keep him focused on me,

and in that fleeting moment,

a hole was pierced through his throat.

“Kweeerr…grrruck?”

“Huh? What is it, why aren’t you dying?!”

He wouldn’t die.

Not after surviving that rain of arrows just moments ago.

If a mere pierced throat could kill him,

he wouldn’t be nearly this troublesome.

“Gweeee…ooough!!”

“..Wait, look out─”

A moment of carelessness.

Something I shouldn’t have allowed,

Had I, without realizing it, still been comparing him to a human?

For a fleeting moment, seeing the sight of his throat

pierced through,

for just a sliver of time,

I thought, “Safe.”

No matter how great

the regenerative power of that creature,

there was no way he could immediately

move the instant his neck was breached.

And so, I let my guard down,

and thus, I missed it.

His movement.

A mere flicker of time.

The moment I blinked.

In that brief span, the sword

that had been before me vanished,

and it materialized directly in front of Charlotte.

Still accompanied by that hideous roar.

“Milady!! Look out…!”

“No, that size shouldn’t have such speed…!”

“Gaaack!!!”

Having assessed the situation,

she hastily drew a dagger

from within her robes,

but already, his blade was aimed at her neck.

“Saintess!! A barrier─”

“I can’t..! There’s no time for a casting…!”

*Kaang─*

*Clang─*

Ah, no. Too late.

The instant her dagger clashed

against Allen’s sword.

The sound echoed

around us.

The sound of a breaking blade.

“Ah.”

Her brief exclamation

rang out with stark clarity,

and even in that instant, Allen’s

sword did not halt.

Even now, it continued to threaten her throat.

Within her mind, too,

and within ours,

only a single thought arose in that moment.

Her death.

Only that.

To use magic,

even if only for the briefest of instants,

a casting time was undeniably needed,

and in this very moment, bereft even of her dagger,

it seemed there was no way for her to survive the attack,

and I, nor even the Holy Maiden,

had the means to attempt something,

for the distance to her, the time remaining,

was far too great,

far too short.

I, without even the whisper of magic,

could do nothing.

KWA-aaaNG─!!

“GUR…GUR-EEoooaaaCK!!”

It was then.

That the colossal blast echoed forth.

Startled by the deafening roar,

which made the very earth tremble, I looked up to find

Allen’s arm, which had been grasping the sword just moments before, was no longer there.

As if torn away by some unseen force,

leaving only a ravaged wound.

“…Uh, uh? Am I still alive?”

“Get up quickly, and flee…!”

“Pinku!! Don’t you bully him!!”

A spectacle of massive fireballs

slammed into him, even as a swarm of dark motes followed in their wake.

Come to think of it, I had been so caught up in the urgency of the situation that I’d momentarily forgotten.

Aria’s mana, at this point,

had become available for use once again.

And at a considerable level, to boot.

Perhaps, right now, her level

was beyond that of most academy students.

Normally, she was always,

The restraint she’d held onto,

now, for the very first time, she was throwing herself into the battle with everything she had.

“..Too weakened, even considering these shackles..”

“….”

“At this rate, I won’t be of any help to Brother..!”

Her muttering carried all the way here.

..Honestly, if a magic wielder of your caliber

finds themselves in a situation where they’re useless,

then getting involved in that situation in the first place was a mistake.

Logically speaking, a situation

where a mage of her level couldn’t be of assistance

wasn’t something that happened often,

but right now, she didn’t

seem to think that way at all.

“You nasty thing!!”

“Ghurrrroooaaa..!!”

“Mama said to punish bad guys!!”

And no wonder, because right in front of her,

dark beams of light were still being

ejected without restraint.

Black rays that could melt anything

they touched.

That gruesome, and vicious power was focused on a single point.

“Ouch, ouch, ouch!!!”

And Aria was taking that scene

all in, eyes wide.

She had always taken pride in her magic,

which made this even more unacceptable.

A child who looked younger than her,

even being generous, a kid her age,

was casting a spell stronger than her,

and keeping it up longer than she could.

For her, who possessed exceptional talent

and never skipped a beat with her efforts,

the situation itself

was incredibly shocking.

‘Where did a kid like that come from..?’

“It hurts!!!”

“Uh.. ugh, just because you say it hurts, doesn’t mean I’ll go easy on you!!”

‘At this rate, I’ll just be a burden to Brother again..’

“Aria!!”

But such thoughts

were poison on the battlefield.

In a place where a single moment’s contest

snatched away lives,

to dare lose oneself in self-reproach?

It was something that absolutely should not be,

should not exist, and yet,

to her, lacking real battle experience,

it was something foreign.

She had no choice but to pay

the price with her entire being.

“A… Ariaaa!”

“..Huh?”

Allen’s sword,

forging ahead even at the cost of melting flesh,

struck her body with force.

The term “struck with force”

was a description unsuited for a sword, and yet,

this time, no other phrase could be more fitting.

“Kyaaa!”

“…?”

Clearly, though the blade of the sword

had touched her flesh,

she wasn’t cut, but

sent flying to smash against the wall.

“May the Light of Creation protect the children of this land…!”

Before Aria’s body could be completely

split in two,

the Saintess’s divine power wrapped around her form.

Of course, there was no way

to negate the force applied to her body,

so she still flew and crashed into the wall,

but at least she was alive,

and that was something to be grateful for in this situation.

“A… Ariaaa!”

At the very same moment,

the madness rampaging

through Allen’s mind

began to whisper endlessly to him,

urging him to disobey his father’s orders.

Escape his shadow, they whispered.

How long would you remain a puppet of the family?

Things you wouldn’t have dared to dream of,

back when you were still a sane man.

They seduced him, saying he could do it now, in this state.

And already ruled by madness,

he could not resist the temptation.

His father,

Duke Reinhardt’s command,

was to protect Aria from anyone who tried to take her.

[Break, the command, kill, that b*tch, completely, liberate, from the family!!]

“Ah… hahaha…yes, that’s right, that’s what I must do.”

[Yes! Massacre, slaughter, chaos!!]

“Only then, will the Duke, acknowledge, me?”

[Correct! Only then, will he, accept, me, more!!]

“Yes, I must…do it, I must…”

The madness that endlessly

whispered within him, grinned.

The tiny sliver, just moments ago,

of his mind that clung to humanity,

had finally succumbed.

At least for now,

it was not yet time for the tide to turn.