Ch.141141. The Star-Cutting Sword (3)

That light, smaller than a dot, was shining brighter than a falling comet.

Primordial light, or perhaps an explosion. If all the light in the world had been gathered and kindled above a candle flame, it might look like this. Even with your back turned, you could see it, and if you faced it directly, you would be overwhelmed. Not an explosive emission, but a quiet, sublime manifestation, as if it had always been there. As time itself seemed to stop, everyone present turned their heads toward the light with a sense of premonition.

“…What have you done this time?”

George muttered toward the light. The light wasn’t just blindingly bright. It was consuming all senses. Like a candle flame kindled in a cave where no light had ever penetrated. And the light was soft and warm. Like the warmth from a candle flame. But more than that, the light was distant. Not dim, but far away. No matter how far it was, it remained bright, and no matter how close you got, it didn’t grow any brighter.

“Ilroy.”

Isis stared blankly at Ilroy alongside George. Like a counterpoint to the comet slicing through the sky from the west, Ilroy appeared from the east, wrapped in light. A protective light that seemed to embrace everything. Isis felt divinity as she gazed at the light. Her magic resonated with Ilroy’s light, making her heart pound.

“Can you understand this transformation, Isis?”

At George’s trembling question, Isis slowly shook her head.

“No. It seems to be on a completely different level than simply increased magical power. It was worth the wait.”

“Every time I see him, I think the same thing—he’s strange. He only appears in moments of life or death.”

Isis let out a hollow laugh. The two of them turned their heads to follow the light as it began to move.

The light seemed to move very slowly. Standing at the edge of the mountain, taking a step forward. What happened next was far beyond George and Isis’s understanding.

Keeeing.

A beam of light cut through the monsters that covered the mountainside in pitch black. A beat later, the afterimage of light began to turn crimson red. Like blood seeping from a cut wound, the mass slaughter occurred as a single injury. The mountain was bleeding. Blood poured out like water overflowing from a bucket.

“…Insane.”

George shuddered, his back trembling. For the first time today, the mountain revealed its skin. The monsters that had been clinging to the fortress began to fall one by one. They had found a new target. More than tens of thousands of remaining monsters began to form a line and surge toward the light.

In that moment, the light was obscured as if by an eclipse. George swallowed dryly, and Isis inhaled sharply. Behind them, soldiers stirred and murmured. The monsters piled up like a shell encasing the light.

“No…”

“Hero!!”

Desperate voices rang out. The soldiers clutched their hands together, trying to hold onto the spark of hope. Then, like a cocoon splitting open, cracks of light began to appear in the mass of monsters. The soldiers rejoiced. George and Isis held their breath as they watched the blooming entity. The shell melted away, and the light reappeared.

“Ah…!”

A unified gasp was heard. It shone brighter than when it first appeared. Purely, it was a guide and exit that drove away darkness. The expanded light scattered fragments. The fragments floated slowly like snowflakes before gently falling to the ground. The fragments of light, feathers, originated from behind the hero’s back.

“…Wings?”

Someone who recognized him murmured. Three pairs of wings awakening as if to embrace the world. Like magnolias blooming at the end of winter, like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon, the wings were slowly spreading. The hero slowly rose, flapping his wings. One by one, the most devout among the soldiers knelt down. Isis bit her lip and joined her hands together.

You. You who appeared in the world with divine light.

“The world…”

“Us…”

Save us.

==

The monsters howled. What they felt was foreboding. Like dogs barking at the empty air, the monsters all looked at the light and let out tearing cries. Natalie, similarly half-driven by instinct, tilted her head back. It was the first light. The monsters surrounding Natalie jumped down from the fortress wall.

A warm comfort was felt. Natalie stared at the feather landing on her shoulder, then very slowly turned her eyes toward the source of the warmth.

“…Professor?”

Natalie’s lips trembled. Ilroy had suddenly appeared on top of the fortress wall. In that moment, she forgot that this was a battlefield, that death had been beckoning from right in front of her, and looked up at him. The professor, or rather the hero, stood there with wings. The swords in both his hands were shining with a silver-white light.

“You fought well.”

The hero’s voice resonated strangely. Natalie realized that his voice wasn’t entering her ears as sound, but resonating directly in her mind. She blankly received the hero’s gaze. It felt as if they had been removed from the battlefield and entered a classroom. Natalie gave the hero an honest answer.

“…What else could I have done?”

At the student’s question, the hero returned to the professor’s face and slightly raised the corner of his mouth. He seemed impressed by the question itself. A person he once had to kill. Had the hero now let go of that fact? Natalie couldn’t sense any hostility in the hero’s eyes as he looked at her.

“You could have run away, or joined those monsters. Someone like you.”

“I couldn’t run away.”

Natalie frowned at the hero’s answer. The hero didn’t say anything else. He simply asked a question with a face that seemed to know everything.

“So, have you decided to live?”

The hero’s question implied many inquiries. The hero’s eyes were blue-green. Natalie realized this for the first time. Existence is meaningless. Natalie thought her own existence was also like that. But existence cannot remain without meaning. Because it is meaningless, one searches for meaning. For Natalie, the meaning of existence was warmth. The warmth of someone that she, born with nothing, had felt for the first time.

“Yes.”

At Natalie’s answer, a satisfied smile bloomed on Ilroy’s face.

“Well done.”

Ilroy nodded. The approaching monster lost its form like dirty snow melting and fell below the fortress wall. As Ilroy turned his back, time that had stopped began to flow again. Natalie’s eyes caught the wings spreading out. That back looked wider than anyone else’s.

“Just keep living like that.”

The hero descended to the ground with those words. The remaining monsters all rushed toward Ilroy at once. Ilroy raised the sword in his right hand and slashed it horizontally. Like a curtain of darkness being torn to reveal light, the mass of monsters was bisected. Ilroy advanced along that path. Monsters that hadn’t been cut down rushed at Ilroy from behind, only to scatter and die.

Someone had granted her permission to live. Natalie exhaled softly as she watched Ilroy walk away. It seemed like there was more she wanted to say, but she couldn’t remember. Now she needed to follow him and end this battle. Natalie stood up and stepped toward where the hero had gone.

==

One must defend with the momentum to advance. The fight had long been overwhelming, and it wouldn’t have been strange if the battle line collapsed at any moment. What was sustaining that front line was the queen, Agnes.

“As long as I stand, we will not fall. So get up and fight.”

The queen wasn’t strong enough to speak kindly to those behind her. Kind words would be empty beliefs, no different from boasting. Rather than that, encouraging them to keep fighting was the way to save them.

“If it’s hard to look at me, look at the Grand Duke of the North.”

Quenore was an unyielding wall. If Agnes had become the pillar for the soldiers, Quenore was preventing the powerful monsters from advancing further. Monsters that could speak approached, chattering about the comet’s impact and the advent of something, and Quenore tried his best to ignore their words. But the monsters’ words relentlessly assaulted Quenore’s ears just like human speech.

“Everything comes to an end. Why resist in fear?”

“Look at the light flying in. The apostle of those beings is approaching.”

At such times, he gripped his sword more firmly and swung it. The chattering monsters fell silent when Quenore’s sword passed through them. What entered through the momentary silence was the voice of another monster. Quenore swung his sword toward where the voice came from without turning his eyes.

“I should tear your mouth first.”

Quenore’s precious sword was precisely lodged in the werewolf’s maw. As the werewolf tried to move its jaws, Quenore thrust his sword deep into its throat, then pulled it out while bisecting its head. At Quenore’s fierce gaze, the charging monsters hesitated and faltered.

“Attack all at once. If we kill this human, there’s no reason for this to drag on.”

The monster leader said. At that command, monsters that had been attacking the soldiers turned their backs and began to lunge at Quenore. What would normally be a meaningless mass attack further eroded Quenore’s strength, which was already half-dead. Minor wounds increased. His precious sword hadn’t lost its sharpness, but the movements wielding it had become sluggish.

Thud.

A monster rammed into Quenore’s back. Quenore staggered forward but didn’t kneel. Agnes desperately swung her sword behind Quenore, advancing to save him. The monsters didn’t even glance at her.

“Grand Duke!!”

Monsters piled on top of Quenore, accumulating. Despite Quenore’s sword strikes, they threw themselves at him, obstructing his sword path and blocking his movements with their flesh. For the first time since the battle began, Quenore turned his head and shook it.

“Don’t come, Your Majesty.”

“Do you truly say that!”

“You must rally the soldiers. Focus more on reforming the battle line than on me.”

Quenore’s voice was calm. Having lost much blood, his skin visible between wounds and stains was pale. But he didn’t seem like he would collapse. Even now, with his head turned toward the queen, Quenore was killing monsters.

“Your Majesty. Not much remains until the end. Right now, you should consider my life as expendable as a blade of grass.”

They piled up. Quenore looked like a person drowning in midair. Quenore swung his sword once to clear a path for Agnes. The Grand Duke truly seemed ready to give up his life.

“Please, don’t give up until the very end.”

Agnes gritted her teeth, and Quenore turned his back. Just as a wall of monsters began to form between them again, all the monsters in that place crumbled. The blood flowing everywhere wasn’t human blood. At the scene of death and salvation, Agnes stood frozen with her sword drawn.

And, suddenly. Light appeared there.

“Both of you have endured so well.”

It was a familiar voice. The strength Agnes had been forcibly holding onto suddenly gave way. As she fell forward, someone’s arms caught her. Agnes blinked and looked at the hero’s face who had caught her.

“Ilroy…? Is it truly you, Ilroy?”

The silver hero smiled at the corner of his mouth and nodded.

“Yes, Your Majesty. It is I.”

“How… how did you come here? I’m not seeing things, am I?”

Even Agnes thought this wasn’t something she would normally say. Ilroy chuckled and shook his head. His arms holding Agnes tightened slightly.

“You’re not seeing things. I am here.”

“…I see.”

Agnes could finally smile brightly only after reaching out and touching Ilroy’s face herself. Ilroy gently set the queen down on the ground. Agnes awkwardly stood up. Looking again, the hero was now facing Quenore. The Grand Duke, who had been prepared to die just minutes ago, looked at Ilroy with an expression of disbelief.

“Well, this is embarrassing. I never thought I’d owe my life to the same person twice.”

“No. I’m the one who owes you. You saved the soldiers standing behind you.”

Ilroy approached Quenore and extended his hand. Quenore looked at Ilroy’s hand surrounded by radiance and shook his head. Though he barely had the strength to stand, he felt that if he took that hand, he could somehow rise and fight again and again.

“How… how can you!!”

A half-human, half-beast monster screamed as if wailing. Ilroy looked at the monsters with dispassionate eyes, then raised the crossed swords in both hands. There weren’t enough monsters left to form a wall. Ilroy stepped forward, leaving the two heroes behind.

“I’ve waited long enough.”

Ilroy’s voice was infinitely cold. There was no hesitation in his sword strikes. The ancient monster resisted the whitening vision, flailing its limbs wildly. The severed limbs, unaware they had been cut off, flailed in the air before falling to the ground.

Ilroy took a deep breath. The last army of monsters was before him. Beyond the monster army, the approaching comet was getting closer.

“You must… go, I suppose.”

Ilroy turned around at the voice. Agnes’s eyes were wavering. Ilroy smiled bitterly and affirmed the queen’s words.

“I’ll be back, Your Majesty. I’ll try not to take too long.”

Agnes slightly furrowed her brow. A hint of mischief entered her ruby-like shining eyes.

“I’ll take care of things here. And let me tell you one thing—I despise those who don’t keep their promises. Remember that.”

“…How could I not?”

As he answered, the hero vanished. Agnes felt his presence again when the monster army collapsed like burning leaves.

==

The last monster was pierced by the Holy Sword and added height to the mountain of corpses. I learned for the first time today that a mountain of corpses piling up and blood flowing from it to form a stream was actually a sight one could witness.

Is it too much? Or is this also some kind of process?

I couldn’t feel my heart. It probably started tearing when the Holy Sword began its third release. Now that the release is complete and my heart has turned to rags, a condensed mass of mana is barely continuing to beat inside the shell. I don’t know how much longer my heart will hold out. Therefore, before this temporary heart disappears and I completely stop moving, I needed to eliminate the sixth calamity.

“[…What did I tell you? Didn’t I say you would perish if you proceeded without being ready?]”

The Holy Sword’s voice was full of regret and sorrow. Perish, huh. The pain of having your heart slowly torn apart while still alive was beyond what a human could endure. I don’t know how many times I fainted and regained consciousness. My mouth was raw from biting myself, and my throat was torn and bleeding.

“If I can stop the calamity, then it’s not perishing but salvation.”

Still, I had no regrets.

“[Don’t die, Ilroy. You still have much to do.]”

I nodded and raised my head. The cursed comet, tracing a spiral tail, flows down from the sky like tears following my gaze.

“Right.”

I inhaled and exhaled. For now, my heart is still functioning.

“For now.”