episode_0043

“You’re almost there. Tighten your grip on the knife and take a deep breath.”

Hoo, haa. I took a deep breath before going into battle. Up until now, it was fine to fight roughly, but breathing was very important to fight properly.

He looked at the silver sword glistening with blood, then gripped it so tightly that his hand almost tore.

This is a kind of ritual, like the actions that people who make a living from sports have established as habits before entering a game.

I guess it’s right for me to catch it first.

He kicks the floor and floats through the air. He clearly intends to kill, but his mind is so dull.

The back of the warrior’s neck is visible. Of course, he knows that he will be blocked, but he extends his sword all the way to the clear weak point.

“This evil one!”

The attack failed because the warrior pulled his body back too quickly. But that’s okay. Pulling his body back too quickly means that his posture was broken.

“Die, you blasphemer!”

“It’s funny, when I think about it. When you were both warriors, you were the one who played around wildly and I was the most faithful sword, but now I’m on the side of the demons and against the goddess, and you’re the loyal sword that blocks me.”

He swung his sword to block another attack from that broken position. To my eyes, it was clearly a handshake.

-Kagan!

The sound of metal clashing masked the sound of arrows. If this was really intentional, I should commend it.

While the warrior who had lost his posture was trying to regain his composure, I threw my silver sword in the direction the arrow had come from. That’s right, I shouldn’t have been shooting my arrows to support the warrior when there wasn’t much cover to begin with.

“Kkaaah!”

Hit. After confirming that, I called the silver sword back without looking any further.

“Ugh…”

“Die, you blasphemer! Die, you blasphemer!”

Now, the warrior’s appearance was almost like that of a corpse golem that Galvein had dragged around. Was it a side effect of forcibly infusing divinity that was beyond his capacity? It gives me goosebumps to think that I would have ended up like that if I had done something wrong.

The warrior didn’t even know how to speak properly, so he just kept repeating the same thing.

And fighting an opponent who has lost their wits is pretty easy during battle. No matter how strong you are, if you don’t have the skills and judgment, you’re all out of luck, right?

The goddess must have noticed this fact, as she breathed even more divine power into the nearly dead corpse.

I guess he wanted to kill me quickly, but the warrior party kept pushing me around, so I wasn’t weak enough to die like this.

“Fire, Buddhist scriptures, Buddhist scriptures―”

It’s the end.

I let my guard down completely and leisurely stabbed the guy running towards me with my silver sword.

Although he was brimming with divine power, the strength of a warrior was so great that the silver sword had a power that was hostile to divinity, making it nearly impossible to heal his wounds.

“I think it’s time to end it now.”

If I kill you, it’ll really be over, right?

Damn goddess. I hope I never see you again.

I summoned the silver sword stuck in the guy’s leg back to my hand. Sticky, red blood flowed down my hand, but I felt no discomfort.

“Get out of my life.”

I’m so tired today.

As soon as he found out that his friend existed, that friend died, and in order to protect someone precious to him, he broke his convictions and killed the person he was protecting.

So, thinking it was all over, I absentmindedly let my guard down and walked up to him, thrusting my sword at him.

And then, flash.

The things that were floating in the ceiling as if struck by lightning, half-disintegrated white circles and geometric shapes, were neither letters nor shapes, but rather lumps that were floating around in a blurry manner.

While I was letting my guard down, they all came together and formed a two-dimensional shape more beautiful than anything else, emitting light.

“Judgment of the Libra.”

ah.

Kuung―!!!

“Wake up, Leah!”

Was the sound I just heard Elle’s or Abel’s? Actually, it might not really matter. After all, it was just an illusion created by my imagination.

At the last moment, it was the defensive magic and the magic tower that reacted instead of me who was standing there blankly.

First, Abel’s protective magic, cast out of concern for me, created a barrier to block the scales, and right before the barrier was about to break, the Magic Tower quickly used a 1-circle wind magic spell, Wind Cutter, to push my body in the opposite direction of where the scales were falling. Thanks to that, I was able to avoid being crushed under my entire body and becoming a rat trap.

{Unholy.}

“Aha. You’re a goddess.”

The sight of the goddess inside the corpse was so hideous that anyone who saw it would think it was an evil spirit.

“You must be really scared. You’re going through all this trouble. You have to kill me again and take me hostage, right?”

{How dare you break free from my chains! I’ve tied my heart so tightly that you can never do anything to it…!}

Someone donated their heart.

Instead of answering, I gave the goddess a look that would make her cringe. I did my best to imitate the expression of someone she would hate.

“Why, when your fellow gods died, do you remember them so vividly?”

{How! …Since it’s come to this… I’ll just kill you!}

“Like that? How?”

{Not only you, but also the Demon King who hung out with you, and the Four Heavenly Kings, those bastards! I’ll kill you all! How long do you think I’ll put up with it?}

I laughed at the sight of the goddess having a seizure because her trauma button was pressed, and inwardly I looked at the current situation calmly.

I tried to stop the goddess from coming down, but I ended up going down with an imperfect will. How much power did I waste? There must be a time limit. And that’s only a few minutes at most…

“Matopju, just release the barrier and take your disciples out of the tower. Then explain the situation to Abel. I’ll be blocking it for the next few minutes. ”

“I can’t afford to pay for my age. To receive help from a young kid… …Don’t die. You’re not old enough to take the Demon King’s wrath alone.”

“Don’t you say things like, “That can’t be happening,” or “I can’t leave you behind?””

“That’s all sweet potatoes, you punk. Do you have time to chat?”

“No, there isn’t. Thank you for leaving so coolly.”

Splash.

He gritted his teeth, determined to hear what he had to say, and aimed his sword at the corpse of the warrior who had descended upon the goddess.

No, it might not have been the sound of teeth gnashing, but the sound of a barrier breaking. It doesn’t matter what it is.

“You… can’t go past here. Goddess of Libra.”

You can’t hurt anyone. Not Abel, not the Four Heavenly Kings.

{How dare a mere human block me!}

Thud, boom.

For the first time in a long time, my heart was pounding so hard.

The sensation of my body being crushed to death by a hammer was so vivid.

“It won’t happen this time, trust me.”

I gave up trying to tell if it was my friend’s voice or my lover’s voice. They were both pushing my back.

Instead, I stared straight ahead.

*****

[1 minute 23 seconds]

The goddess began to launch full-scale attacks.

{Sinner’s bondage.}

Chains bind my ankles and throw my body into the air.

{Judgment Window•Full Bloom}

Numerous windows surround me, squeezing me in all directions.

Up to here, just one second.

[1 minute 24 seconds]

It’s just a dream to rely on. It becomes more solid.

Spears full of the will to judge me fly towards me all at once.

Only when they came to me did I realize how difficult it was to go against God.

My body was upside down in the air, still being dragged by chains.

[1 minute 26 seconds]

Am I the one who should be judged, or the goddess?

[1 minute 32 seconds]

The sword in my hand dances. I am already dreaming. The peaceful daily life that I can obtain if I defeat the goddess. I can endure for that. I must endure.

I am not a sword master. So I don’t know the secrets that can be unleashed with just one sword.

But at least the windows in front of my eyes… were cut down.

It split horizontally and disappeared into a puff of golden smoke.

[1 minute 39 seconds]

My ankles are pulled hard. My body floats through the air and then crashes into the wall with a strong impact. Only then do I realize the existence of the chains and break them in my dreams.

Damn, my ankle is broken. I should’ve cut it off a long time ago. Was it a mistake to worry about the spear first?

I feel the goddess laughing at me. Abel, you dare to confront someone with such power.

Will Abel come here?

I felt lost. I thought I had become stronger, but I wasn’t strong enough to stand up to God.

[1 minute 43 seconds]

It only felt like 20 seconds had passed, but my ankle was already out. It might actually be a miracle that a mere human could hold out like this.

But if you think about it differently, out of all those body parts, it’s just one ankle. I can still fight…

I’ve got my dream figured out.

[1 minute 49 seconds]

The goddess seemed to be watching me closely, then realized her superiority and attacked me like a storm.

One, two, three.

Thirty-seven, thirty-nine, forty-three…

How many attacks did I block? I couldn’t tell. The only thing I could tell was the pain.

My arms were so numb. I blocked everything, but this is it? Are you telling me to just let it all out?

Not only was my ankle sore, but blood was also dripping from my head and running down my skin.

It looked like his head was hit pretty hard when he was hit against the wall earlier.

My vision is blurry. Since when has the world only been gold?

[1 minute 53 seconds]

The offensive is slowing down. That’s good news.

Her tattered body was too weak to withstand the power of the goddess. Just one more minute… Yes, just hold out until three minutes.

[1 minute 57 seconds]

Push.

Or rustle.

It’s not a very loud sound, but it’s the sound made when cutting meat into bite-size pieces for cooking. It’s a sound that’s not even close to being made by a spear.

My left arm was cut off with just that little sound.

cause?

Concentration disrupted by flowing blood?

Or maybe you slipped and fell because your ankle got hurt?

Even though I kept holding on, my hand eventually lost its strength and let go of one of the spears?

There were many reasons, but the result was one: amputation of the left arm.

Only then did I see the facts I had been trying to avoid.

[2 minutes 00 seconds]

Thump, thump… Blood is flowing out of my arm. If left untreated, it will definitely lead to excessive bleeding.

Will I be able to survive?

…I don’t want to die.

I wanted to love.

I wanted to be loved.

But, I wasn’t sure.

All sorts of reasons for bringing this and that up, and the lumps deep in my heart, unintentionally pushed me to the edge of a cliff.

I rushed into the empire recklessly, with my mind as tangled as a thread.

The situation was the worst. Still, I knew that I was the only one who could do this. Maybe at that time, I thought to myself that if one of me and Abel had to die, it would be me again. The force that I had always felt as a warrior slowly reared its head again.

Who knew that even a nearly completely crushed magic circle could descend…

No, maybe I forgot that I also needed help from others because I was so absorbed in being a warrior. I just thought that I had to block everything.

In fact, it’s not a very useful premise since running away would have been impossible in the first place. At least they could have captured the magic tower, that’s all?

A feeling of dizziness came over me.

[2 minutes 5 seconds]

{The price for your indulgence is death.}

It’s my life that I’ve barely managed to get back to running.

no…

This is not my heart.

At least it’s not something that someone like you can touch.

The hand of the goddess lifted my face.

Should I have been a little more careful? But how could I have done that in that situation? I would also get hurt if I heard the people I saved from being abused call me a whore…

If anyone can hear please.

[2 minutes 8 seconds]

Save me.

The barrier that had been holding on for so long without the coordination of the wizards finally reached its limit and broke.

[2 minutes 9 seconds]

“…”

The goddess’s arm was cut off.

Two identical sword strikes cut off the goddess’s arms at exactly the same time.

I see blue.

You came.

“…Abel.”

I… don’t think I did well.

Can I take a break for a bit?

“Of course.”