Ch.65Report on the Downfall of Humility (13)

Kain rolled forward. Even as he rolled, he swung his sword toward the lion’s hind legs. He felt like he hit something, but it wasn’t a decisive blow. The lion charged at him with even greater excitement.

Perhaps because its mouth was attached to its belly, the creature kept trying to climb on top of Kain. Kain steeled himself. Waiting for the lion to pounce, he thrust his staff into one of the human mouths. Like a lion with a thorn stuck in its mouth, the creature flopped to the side and flailed.

He swung the Imperial Sword, slashing across, hoping to sever the tendons in its legs or at least inflict some damage. He had barely neutralized one, but there were far too many beasts.

The Samaritans, howling for revenge, shouted to be taken too. The shadows gladly harvested them. They entered their bodies and bloomed. Soon, they became beasts.

“No! Please! Darling!”

A Samaritan woman screamed. Her husband, now transformed into a beast, lunged to maul his wife and children.

It had a human face but a fish-like body with limbs. Kain leaped onto the beast’s back and drove the Imperial Sword into its soft neck. Feeling resistance, he slashed sideways, cutting through its gills. It made a gurgling sound and foamed blood, like something with its breathing passage cut.

Kain struck the Samaritan woman on the back. It was the only way to bring her to her senses. He pointed to the south gate, indicating to the startled woman to flee. To flee quickly.

The woman, now alert, ran with her children. Kain searched for the Knight of the Scabbard. He was nowhere to be seen. He spotted Arianne collapsed on the ground.

Before more beasts could attack, Kain ran toward her. As he ran, he continued blowing the screaming flute. The Holy Grail Knights scrambled to their feet.

“The people! Protect the people! Get the Samaritans to safety, hurry!”

Kain shouted, but they couldn’t seem to come to their senses. Kain punched a nearby knight in the face. After confirming a hint of defiance, he struck the other cheek as well, then pointed to the Samaritans before running off.

The city was collapsing. A thunderous sound came from the central fortress. The bell tower at the highest point had collapsed, and the bell had fallen to the ground and shattered.

Covering his ears, he ran again. Fortunately, Arianne, startled by the shock and the terrible noise, had sat up. With dazed eyes, she looked at Kain running toward her. Because of this, she didn’t see the black knight approaching from behind.

“Behind you!”

Kain shouted. Arianne barely escaped the knight’s grasp. The Knight of the Scabbard’s movements were so slow. Kain thrust his sword forward with his running momentum. But once again, it was blocked by the scabbard.

This was expected. Kain pushed the sword sideways. The scabbard tilted toward the knight. He kicked the knight in the lower abdomen. Though protected by solid armor, it couldn’t prevent the knight’s center of gravity from being disrupted. The knight fell backward.

From the recoil of kicking the knight, Kain jumped backward. He spun around and lifted Arianne into his arms. Without looking back, he ran straight for the south gate. She was so light that he felt no weight at all.

“I… committed a sin…”

Arianne whispered in his arms.

“We forcibly put that thing… into the body of that good and kind child. We cut him down so he couldn’t escape and buried him in the ground… I saw it. But. But… I couldn’t tell anyone. No one at all…”

“You’re intoxicated. By the herb…”

“No.” Arianne laughed through tears.

“I heard the child’s screams. I heard him crying out from beneath the soil. But I pretended not to hear. When others asked me if I wanted to be a hero, I… I couldn’t speak. Because I wanted to be a hero.”

“You need to rest.”

Arianne didn’t listen. She continued speaking deliberately. Kain knew these were her last words. He didn’t want to hear them. But each word etched itself deep into his heart.

“Then. I thought. I could live somewhat normally. Without being called a disgusting snake woman as a Samaritan… I thought I would be happy, loved and respected by everyone… I believed I would never have to return here. But I couldn’t escape…”

“No. You can.” Kain asserted. “That’s why I came here. We came here to help you. There’s still a chance…”

“There is a chance. There might be. But I’ve… accumulated too much karma. So, please forgive me.”

Arianne jabbed her elbow into Kain’s solar plexus. Caught completely off guard, Kain’s legs tangled. He fell forward with his momentum. Arianne was also thrown, but she stood up.

“Arianne!”

“Mother has come.”

Something fell from the sky to the ground. The object that plunged between them was Arianne’s curved sword. Kain looked up at the sky. He saw a ship hovering majestically.

A pillar of shadow shot up from the ground to the sky. A human figure walked out from within. She wore black silk clothes over a shroud. Her body was completely covered, making it difficult to identify her, but the curves of her body were those of a woman.

The shadow untied the knot covering her face. She was a dead person moving while alive, dripping shadow from her eyes, nose, and mouth. It was a face familiar to Kain.

The steel mask modeled after a human face that he had seen in Arianne’s room, placed on the body of a beast. The resemblance to Arianne was because this was her mother.

“…Finally.”

A rotten smell wafted whenever she opened her mouth. Instead of thick saliva, dark shadows and congealed blood dripped. Every word was filled with hatred.

“…The day has come to wash away my shame…”

It was Shajar al-Durr. Samaritan beasts gathered around her. Beasts created by randomly mixing humans and animals, burning torches filled with asas herb.

Shajar al-Durr looked up at the sky. From the imposing night sky, darkness gathered in her hand. Soon it became a curved sword. A black curved sword dripping shadow instead of blood.

Kain tried to get up somehow. It was difficult to tell where or how he was injured. It felt like an alligator was tearing at his lower abdomen, but he stood up using his sword as a staff.

Arianne raised her curved sword to eye level. Shajar extended her curved sword horizontally.

“Mother.”

Arianne’s eyes were clear, and her voice was strong.

“How happy we would have been if we had never met.”

“Ah, what’s the use of talking.” The corpse cackled.

“Neither in life nor in death have I been happy. The thought of cutting down you, my lifelong burden, fills me with joy.”

Kain raised his sword. The beasts leaped at him. They drove Kain back and forth as if to prevent interference. He stabbed, slashed, and swung. He dodged, rolled, and ran.

Yet he couldn’t break through the monsters. Where one moved aside, two jumped in, and where two moved aside, four regained their strength and attacked. They pushed Kain back with their bodies and weight.

Something pushed Kain’s body. A leg, body, or tail—he wasn’t sure. But it was certainly as heavy as a club and as long as a staff. Kain’s body slid across the ground.

Fallen on the ground, Kain watched as Arianne gently swung her sword as if soothing a falling crescent moon. Shajar’s curved sword scattered shadows as if wanting to devour the remaining parts.

The mother and daughter moved identically. They spun and thrust, then struck downward only to strike upward. They pulled with their bodies while thrusting, then blocked by rotating their wrists.

But the delicate balance didn’t last long. Arianne’s posture faltered as she pivoted on her left ankle.

“How foolish!” Shajar smiled. “You’ve always been clumsy with left turns!” Her curved sword, spraying shadows, flew toward Arianne’s neck, seeking it.

“No.”

Shajar hesitated. Arianne stood straight with her curved sword, upright like the moon at its zenith. Shajar’s severed arm, with the curved sword, fell to the ground with a thud.

“You taught me wrong, Mother. Just as you’ve done my entire life.”

A sound that was neither human nor beast erupted from the dead woman’s mouth. Arianne turned away. No matter what, this was still her mother. She couldn’t look at her directly.

So she didn’t see the curved sword writhing and moving behind her.

Kain tried to shout “behind you,” but his body wouldn’t obey. All that came out was a coughing sound.

The shadow curved sword pierced through Arianne’s body. Shajar’s writhing body stood up again. Arianne’s face turned pale. She coughed up bright red blood and briefly looked down at the curved sword protruding through her chest.

Kain screamed and reached out his hand.

Arianne forced a smile and shook her head. Without her mother noticing, she carefully moved her arms. The curved sword was too long. She couldn’t grab the handle. So she grasped the back and the blade of the sword. Blood flowed from her hands, but she didn’t care.

She pressed the curved sword hard against her stomach. Losing strength at the last moment, she leaned forward. The curved sword that had pierced through the Lady of Humility now pierced through the body of the dead woman who had sought revenge even in death. Strangely, it resembled an umbilical cord.

The beasts went wild. “Mother! Mother!” They blamed each other. They tore at each other.

Amidst the chaos of the unleashed beasts, Kain painfully dragged his body. Arianne’s lips moved. She seemed to be trying to say something.

“Thank. You.”

What. What was she so thankful for? Kain couldn’t understand.

He hadn’t saved her. He hadn’t kept his promise.

He tried to pull out the sword somehow, but he didn’t know which of the two swords to pull out. Arianne shook her head and looked up at Kain.

“Tem… Tem…”

Arianne tried to reach out. She seemed to have something urgent to say. “Hu… Hu…” Kain wanted to know. He wanted to understand somehow. Arianne nodded with difficulty.

“Hum… Hum…”

“Humility.”

Arianne barely managed to nod. Kain realized what she was trying to say.

“Temperance.”

A smile spread across her face. Her pupils hardened. Her final breath was peaceful.

Kain closed Arianne’s eyes. He wasn’t crying.

He was smiling. Incredibly, happily smiling.

Kain coughed up blood. The frenzied beasts circled around him like a pack of wolves.

“Alright.” Kain wiped the blood from his mouth. Without the strength to hold the Imperial Sword, he hastily pulled his sleeve and bound it tightly to his fist.

“Come at me.”

“Perish! Perish! This wretched world, these wretched creatures!”

A Samaritan turned beast shouted. It tried to drive something long like an elephant’s tusk into Kain’s body. Despite having a body like a cow.

From behind, something flew with a whooshing sound. The charging Samaritan collapsed. Its head was split in half.

The gleaming object embedded in the center of its crown was an axe.