Chapter 201 — In the End (3)
The assistance I received from the combat system was actually rather minor, but it was subtly provided at just the right level to be indispensable.
For example, it kept me from staggering when I swung my sword so I could draw a clean line with it, helped distribute my strength when I parried a blow, and corrected my aim so my strike wouldn’t miss its intended point.
Things like that.
Add Survival Instinct: Evasion Route Guidance and Evasion Counterattack: Opening and Weak Point Display on top of that, and combat became even easier.
Clang! Clang-clang!
No. Let me correct myself. Those were what allowed Berserk and me to barely maintain an equilibrium.
I couldn’t tell whether Berserk was simply that strong or the system was downright broken.
KLANG!
Either way, the clear ring of metal echoed through the nighttime forest, scattering sparks.
The oil lamp positioned between us jumped whenever the ground shook, but it never toppled over.
Whoosh!
I feinted a downward slash, twisted my wrist, and cut low instead.
Rather than wasting strength pulling the blade embedded in the ground free, Berserk responded by kicking the shaft with her foot.
Clang! The two weapons, both relying more on weight than sharpness, collided with a metallic crash. I’d thought I’d found a decent opening, but she truly wasn’t an easy opponent.
“Hup!”
Amid all that, Berserk caught the shaft that was about to slam back into the ground from the force of the collision and immediately thrust it forward.
This time, I was the one in danger. My Zweihander had also been knocked upward by the impact.
But perhaps this was an opportunity too. I twisted my body while watching the branching path glowing white thanks to the skill.
Shhk!
The hem of my coat, fluttering around my waist, was pierced by the halberd. But that was all. The halberd barely grazed past my side, tearing my clothes without cutting into my flesh.
Whoosh.
Meanwhile, my body was already rotating a full turn as my ankle and waist twisted.
My raised arms were spinning the Zweihander by changing the angle of my wrists and the way I gripped it. It was to build acceleration.
“……!”
But the most important thing was distance.
Berserk had closed in on me while thrusting her halberd, and I had narrowed that distance even further by slipping past her weapon by a hair.
Now she was within my range as well.
I could cut her.
Slash!
I poured as much strength as possible into my hands and swung the sword in a huge arc like a windmill, gripping it as far back as I could.
Berserk’s golden eyes trembled.
CLANG!
The halberd, barely pulled back in time before surging forward again, blocked my sword. It was similar to the method I used when stopping her halberd. She trapped my sword between the two blades, completely cutting off the follow-up strike.
“Hup!”
No.
Perhaps she was aiming for more than that.
Berserk rolled the shaft within her palms. She hadn’t swung the entire halberd in a circle; she had rotated only the shaft.
That tightened the lock between our weapons even further and increased the pressure being applied. It was similar to the moment when you pried the cap off a beer bottle with a bottle opener.
Creeeak.
A dangerous sound came from both the halberd blade and my Zweihander. At this rate, one of them would either break or bend.
Whoosh!
But Berserk didn’t choose to break it.
She chose to pull.
“……!”
As my sword was yanked forward as though being sucked in, I reflexively tightened my grip around the hilt.
Is she trying to disarm me?!
I realized her intention a moment later.
We hadn’t established any conditions for defeat, but having my weapon taken away certainly wouldn’t be a step toward victory.
I had no intention of obediently letting her take it. I instinctively twisted my sword. My body moved faster than the judgment my mind had made.
SKRREEECH!
With a hair-raising screech, my sword somehow forced its way free from between the blades. In the pitch-black darkness, dozens of sparks scattered with striking clarity.
“Hup!”
But Berserk wasn’t about to simply watch that happen.
The instant I tried to retreat, she launched a quick thrust. My Zweihander still hadn’t completely separated from her halberd.
Scrrk.
Ah, this reminds me of that old movie I had to watch for an assignment. The sound of someone scraping a green chalkboard in it was exactly like this.
After briefly entertaining that useless thought, I reversed my grip and twisted the Zweihander.
Earlier, Berserk had tightened the lock between our weapons.
Now I was the one tightening it.
KRRRNNCH!
Still, it was fine.
It would be fine.
I trusted the sword that had never once dropped below 90 durability and had even restored itself back to 100 whenever it fell into the low nineties.
CLANG!
“……!”
Between the halberd and the Zweihander, mine was unquestionably stronger.
Whoosh.
Just as I thought!
I briefly suppressed the thrill rising inside me and finally snapped the axe blade of the halberd, then moved my newly freed sword.
I had never doubted that my weapon would break hers, so my sword hadn’t ended up crashing uselessly into the ground.
Instead, because I adjusted its path, the force unleashed the instant it broke free poured directly into its acceleration.
The sword spun like a windmill.
THOOM!
Berserk hurriedly swung to meet it, but when it came to accumulated force and acceleration, I had the advantage. The shaft of her halberd collided with my Zweihander and was knocked away.
And then?
Between me, whose acceleration still continued, and Berserk, whose chain of attacks had been utterly destroyed, there was now a gap that could no longer be closed.
There was absolutely no way she could block this.
Whoosh!
She knew that too and tried something other than guarding.
Since the impact had knocked her weapon head backward while bringing the butt end of the shaft forward, and since the axe blade had already been shattered and was useless anyway—
she simply thrust the butt of the shaft at me and attacked.
Even with the axe blade broken, it was still an attack making use of the halberd’s intact 2.5-meter reach.
But there was a route I could evade through.
With that, there was only one answer left to the exchange of moves between us.
Just as before, I avoided the shaft and swung my sword.
My blade surged toward her.
Thump!
Immediately afterward, something heavy fell into the grass.
THUD!
My Zweihander slamming into the ground was merely an added bonus.
“…….”
“…….”
I quickly retraced what had just happened, trying to determine what had made that sound and why my Zweihander hadn’t landed a direct hit.
The answer was right there in front of me.
Berserk had abandoned her weapon to retreat, and I had struck the space she’d vacated.
That was all.
“Will you continue?”
Had I won?
Did I win?
I tried not to get ahead of myself as the thought cautiously crept into my mind. A broken weapon didn’t necessarily mean someone was incapable of fighting, so perhaps this wouldn’t count as a defeat.
Still, I was certain the next attack wouldn’t come immediately.
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Even if this turned into a fistfight, instinct told me it wouldn’t happen right this instant.
So I leisurely retrieved the sword embedded in the ground.
The blade came up through the grass and damp mud along with a spray of dirt. It had buried itself so deeply that I even had to put some strength into pulling it free.
I felt a little like King Arthur.
“…My defeat.”
Then, wait.
Just as I finished pulling out my sword, Berserk clenched her fist and made her declaration. Whenever the lamplight danced, the gold in her eyes seemed to melt.
“I pay tribute to your strength.”
And yet that molten gold wasn’t distorted in the way I had expected.
That was surprising.
She hadn’t lost because of a difference in skill but because of a difference in weapons, so I’d figured she might feel at least a little anger or frustration.
Ah, come to think of it, maybe it wasn’t that surprising after all?
Normally, she was tremendously bold and straightforward.
Perhaps she simply considered even this kind of variable part of her own ability.
Either way, whether she held a grudge over something like this or didn’t, both suited Berserk perfectly.
And because of that, it also felt a little awkward to celebrate too much.
I suitably dispersed the elation that victory had brought me.
“…You did well too.”
Meanwhile, Berserk picked up her broken weapon and praised it for its hard work. Rather than truly treating it like a person, it looked more as though she was giving the weapon she’d long favored the bare minimum of respect before sending it off.
Still, the weapon breaking wasn’t my fault—
No.
Was it my fault?
It wasn’t as though I’d broken it accidentally. I’d done it deliberately, so I guess calling it my fault was correct?
It was a fight I could have continued without necessarily breaking it, and if worst came to worst, I could have simply accepted defeat instead……
Of course, my persona would never tolerate losing.
Ting.
Still mired in thought, I lightly kicked the blade upward with the toe of my boot.
After making half a rotation, the sword settled onto my shoulder.
“Berserk will leave a little later. Go on ahead.”
That was when Berserk spoke.
Because she happened to say it while looking at her weapon, my heart inexplicably sank.
She looked as though she were mourning the broken weapon and reluctant to part with it.
But when I examined her dimly lit face and listened to her voice again, she didn’t seem particularly bothered by the destroyed weapon at all.
Her attitude was far too calm and matter-of-fact for someone harboring any lingering attachment.
Then why had she said she’d leave later?
Did she not care about her weapon being destroyed but still want to reflect on the cause of her defeat?
Because if she went back to the city before reviewing the fight, she might forget something?
Still, if she took too long, dawn would break.
That would make it harder to jump over the city wall.
“Demon Knight.”
…Well, I didn’t need to worry about that much.
It wasn’t as though we were close enough to worry about and look after one another.
“Thank you for indulging my stubbornness today.”
I left the place behind with Berserk’s words of gratitude at my back.
Maybe the dew before dawn was too cold.
The enjoyment I’d felt only moments earlier had vanished without a trace.
That was how it ended.
* * *
* * *
[There are still followers of Envy left? That’s surprising.]
The being dressed in a gown cut all the way down to the navel, with violet hair that darkened toward black at the ends and eyes narrowed so thin they could barely be seen, let out a sound of genuine admiration.
Flap, flap.
Several crows flew around Pandemonium.
[Its name should have been digested long ago.]
“It seems their power remained intact until the name was absorbed.”
[Obviously.]
He irritably replied as one of the crows settled on his forearm.
Of course, he—a demon—understood better than humans that a contract was sustained through a name.
Unlike humans, whose essence remained unchanged even if their name changed, a demon’s name and essence were connected.
Naturally.
[Whether the name is eaten and completely absorbed, or simply disperses into the air and disintegrates, the contract would naturally remain in effect until it disappeared somehow. That’s what a ‘contract’ is.]
It could be deceived, but it could not be broken.
That was a contract.
Absolute.
The most unfair and yet the most equitable, the most fundamental law of all.
One that neither the god of this world nor they, invaders from another world, could ever escape.
[Still, it’s funny. The more of the name I absorbed, the weaker the contract’s effect would have become, and the power they possessed should have gradually disappeared. Even knowing that, they still want to follow the dead?]
“Of course. If something were to happen to you as well, we would……”
[I don’t need words you don’t mean. Or are you hoping to disappoint me?]
“My apologies.”
The word loyalty did not suit the emotion known as greed.
Cooperation to obtain what one desired, collaboration to earn even more—those were far more fitting.
By the same logic, Pandemonium had no desire to hear empty words like those.
After all, his criterion for choosing contractors was not whether they would act on his behalf the moment he fell, but whether they were the kind who would rush in to take everything he had for themselves.
Knowing that, those empty words meant nothing.
They were worthless.
They made no money.
Therefore, he had no need for them.
[Make up for the points you lost with your actions. Clean them all up.]
“Yes. I’ll deal with them immediately.”
[What happened with the hidden serpent of the sea?]
“We’re currently attempting contact. The first and second envoys were killed by the mermen, the third was eaten by the serpent, and we have now sent a fourth envoy.”
[Ha. Tigers, serpents—beasts are all the same.]
If he had been capable of exercising the full strength of his true body, he would never have let them act so insolently.
Pandemonium felt profound irritation at that.
Even though he had consumed every bit of the power he had stolen—
no, precisely because he had consumed it all, his thirst for strength had only grown deeper.
“Please do not worry. This time, we will certainly bring you good news.”
[Ha. You’d better.]
But…
that too would be soon.
Feeling the fragments of power steadily gathering one after another, Pandemonium neatly brought together his long, slender fingers, each as thin as a spider’s leg.
The fingers were unnaturally long compared to his palms, resembling both a bird’s talons and a hedgehog’s spines.
[If you ruin this opportunity, you won’t merely earn my disappointment. You’ll earn the King’s as well.]
And hidden delicately within them—
was the King’s seal.
[Remember this. There is no next time for us.]
The image of a being with the wings of a bird and bat, the head of a goat, the horns of a mountain goat, the tail of a snake, the tusks of a boar, and the legs of a donkey shone more wickedly than anything else.