episode_0022

Before dividing the sum.

Reyna relaxed her stance and asked Luna.

“Let me ask you one thing. Do you really think, do you believe that you didn’t abandon us?”

“…Of course. That’s just your foolish delusion.”

“Hah.”

Luna pondered her question.

Whether it was not the answer she desired, Reyna grabbed her bow immediately after hearing Luna’s response.

“The conversation is over. Also, this is your last chance to survive.”

It was an unbelievable speed.

Just an arrow flying straight towards her.

Even though the trajectory was clearly shown, narrowly avoiding it was almost miraculous.

Reyna’s bow was like that. Its destructive power and speed were so unreal that one could hardly grasp them without experiencing a direct hit.

“It was merely a light pull. Why go through all this trouble for nothing?”

“…Surprising.”

However.

That was only when judged by ordinary standards.

She had grown.

In the past, driven by the determination she had when leaving her tribe with tears in her eyes, she pursued survival.

Living alone for a long time.

She eventually came to wield a bow she had never even seen before.

Sometimes, overwhelmed by longing and weakened by emotions.

On those days, she would whip herself, repeatedly practicing pulling the bowstring.

Ten times.

A hundred times, a thousand times….

Countless experiences piled up relentlessly, yet she kept running towards the peak, focusing only on excellence.

For just one moment.

For that one moment of revenge against the one who harmed her family and the group that destroyed her old tribe.

She stood up against any oppression.

“I never thought Reyna would be this weak.”

“…What?”

Luna slowly pulled the bowstring.

Though it might seem slow, the weapon she drew was called ‘Judgment,’ an ancient Elven weapon.

To a people who valued peace and harmony, it was the last remaining lethal weapon.

If someday they understood the concept of weight units.

The weight of Judgment would be recorded as ‘1,000kg.’

“Eek!!!”

With such a light and slow pull, Luna’s strike shattered common sense.

She almost ended her with a single blow among the numerous Elves.

If Reyna hadn’t dodged the arrow, her body would have been nearly impossible to find.

She realized that something had passed by her field of vision and looked at Luna.

“What? You’ve developed some strange tricks since I last saw you. It still feels wasteful to see Judgment in your hands, though.”

“You still haven’t figured out the situation.”

“Seems so.”

Reyna cleared her position and flew straight up into the sky.

A rain of archery coming down through generations of Elves.

You couldn’t avoid getting wet, no matter how hard you tried to dodge it.

Named after such rain, Arrow Rain.

It was a powerful attack that subdued multiple enemies.

The Arrow Rain accurately hit the area where Luna was, causing a large explosion despite its thin appearance.

The high speed generated friction that led to the explosion.

As she descended from the sky to inspect Luna’s condition.

Amidst the thick smoke that rose, something turquoise began to catch her eye.

“You seem to have forgotten. ‘Judgment’s Circle’ is impervious to any Elven attack.”

“W-What!? How did you…!”

Enveloping Luna’s body was none other than Judgment.

In fact, Judgment had no physical form.

The weapon, close to being ‘formless,’ could only be seen by the wielder.

In other words, Reyna was fighting something invisible.

Judgment was their beginning and creation.

Therefore, it could change into any form.

This was the defensive mode of Judgment, created during the ancient wars to completely block their magic.

It was ‘Judgment’s Circle.’

“This can’t be true!! The ones who succeeded until now…!”

“There weren’t many. That’s why I said it earlier.”

You still haven’t figured out the situation.

Raina began to sink into a creeping sense of unease.

The fear that she might truly die.

No matter how much of a judge she was, if the one catching her was a newborn, she was just a mere prey with a good facade.

However, if the opponent pulling the strings of judgment was skilled enough to change forms.

That alone made judgment a disaster.

“Don’t misunderstand. It’s not that I value judgment, it’s that judgment values me.”

“This…!!”

Nevertheless, Raina did not give up.

It wasn’t about competitiveness or determination.

Stubbornness and pride.

Simultaneously, a kind of obsession that she couldn’t lose.

These qualities combined strongly, driving her to exert all her strength.

Yet, despite clinging to regrets about her life, she keenly felt it.

The same stance, the same skill.

No matter what attack Raina unleashed, Luna returned it with the exact same move.

Through this process, Raina realized something.

The coward she thought had fled was several steps ahead of her.

“Ugh…ugh….”

“Give up, Raina. You’ve lost. You can’t beat me now or in the future.”

Luna approached her as Raina slumped, struggling to breathe.

In Raina’s eyes, there was a look as if she had reached a higher place than herself.

A gaze that seemed to look down on others, making it unbearable to endure.

Helplessness.

Her mind and heart wanted to fight back immediately, but her body succumbed to helplessness, trembling uncontrollably.

This was now closer to a ‘survival instinct’ that could be called anger or stubbornness, rather than sheer determination.

“…Shut up. It’s not over yet.”

“Unfortunately, I can’t kill you. Because you can’t be a nuisance to those kids. That’s the only reason you can still breathe.”

In other words, he could have killed her, but he didn’t.

This became the catalyst that brought out everything in Raina.

“Shut your mouth!!!!!”

“…!!!”

One well-known weakness of elves is their vulnerability in close combat.

This was a widely known fact and simultaneously a fatal flaw.

If you get close to an elf who excels at long-range combat, their options become limited.

Especially when facing a foe like Raina wielding a dagger.

“Kreuk…!”

“You arrogant wench…I clearly said my chances of survival were over, didn’t I?”

Luna scrutinized Raina.

Eyes devoid of reason and intellect.

Pupils filled solely with desire for victory.

Even abandoning the pride of an elf to charge forward.

It was no longer the face of the past.

“Die!!!!!”

To an agile elf with nothing but agility, even a minor injury is critical.

If they are cut by a small dagger, their actions are severely restricted.

If that shoulder, which was just grazed, had been slashed.

Not to mention judgment, even drawing a regular bow would become difficult.

“Heh heh, how foolish. Unable to do anything because of those brats. Seems like you’ve forgotten the pride of an elven warrior.”

“I don’t know about those old stories, but how about getting your act together?”

Each time Luna dodged an attack, she felt it.

This guy could only be appeased by killing her.

It didn’t matter if they were separated from the battlefield.

…Well, they had come too far.

Thus, with clumsy yet vigorous slashes leaving dozens of marks.

Luna could do nothing but bleed from the numerous scratches.

“Hehe, finally coming to your senses?”

“…I’ve been sensible from the start.”

“Don’t worry too much about appearances. I’ll send your so-called team the same way.”

With that statement, Luna dropped judgment to the ground.

Despite her sudden action, Raina was only slightly flustered, not letting her guard down.

Eventually, Luna took a deep breath and spoke.

“…I didn’t want to be serious all this time. On the days when I left the village behind and walked into the streets, the situation was too serious for me to even crack a smile. That’s why I always tried to act like a child, pretending to be carefree and breezing through everything.”

“You…”

“When I get serious, that day comes back to me. But you, you really can’t do it.”

Rayna listened to what the instinctual voice had to say.

The atmosphere had already changed.

If you want to live, run away.

This was Luna’s final strike, practiced in secret.

Unlike bows that require a certain distance, this bow could deliver maximum power even at close range.

Starting from shooting arrows at stationary targets, passing through the stages of mastering trajectory changes, to reaching the level of handling the bow freely—a straightforward skill progression.

Anyone facing this would surely repeat the same words in their mind.

This is not just a bow, but ‘something else.’

A flame that defies definition, with power enough to blow away an entire region.

After a long time, a deadly bow naturally born in her hands, ‘Genesis.’

…

…

…

“You foolish girl!!!”

Luna was more surprised than ever.

Her determination to dodge Genesis’ direct hit by sacrificing part of her body.

Before she knew it, it had reached her slender abdomen.

Rayna smiled as she felt the fact that she had pierced Luna, but soon fell into great despair.

“…You foolish girl.”

It wasn’t Luna; it was Luna’s delusion distorted by Genesis.

An illusion created by the incredibly fast speed of Genesis, making it seem like the caster was still standing there.

Along with that, Luna left something behind to end this fierce battle.

The ‘dud robot.’

Rayna, consumed by great madness, looked at her with a soulless face.

However, Rayna’s expression, containing so much, disappeared somewhere shortly after a loud explosion, erasing her along with it.

It was the moment when the explosion engulfed her with a deafening roar, wiping her out.