Chapter 289 — Something I Can Accept (5)
『Anyway. You heard that, didn’t you, Number 73? Congratulations. You’re a failure, but you’ve avoided disposal and further experimentation.』
『…….』
『Why don’t you look happy?』
『I am not a failure.』
『Ah. Did that wound your pride?』
『I……!』
『You are a failure, Number 73. Despite receiving the blood of the being called the origin point of magic, your magical talent is at rock bottom. Although we removed the Demonic Energy, the output you can produce is only around the limits of a human. And as a result, even demons attack you… Ah, perhaps that can’t be helped since you aren’t actually a demon in the first place? Not that you’re human either.』
『……!』
『You would do well to understand your place. Your original may indeed be a rebel against the heavens, but that does not make you a rebel against the heavens.』
『I-I…….』
『If you wish to aim for the heavens, first acquire the standing appropriate for it. Well, you won’t be able to.』
『…….』
* * *
Emerald—
Morning Star—
quietly raised her sword.
Rebellion.
The word she spoke herself and mocked herself was immediately cut apart by the blade.
Everyone else in the world could ridicule her goal.
But she alone could not.
A single act of compliance was not defeat.
But a single act of resignation was the opening signal of submission.
And she would never submit to the being who was her origin.
“…Ah. I see.”
She watched the opponent’s awkward expression and put strength into her toes.
Her leather footwear was thick enough to protect the soles of her feet, yet thin enough not to interfere with the flexibility that was one of her strengths.
The leather creased tightly.
BOOM!
A single leap crushed the surrounding air and scattered its fragments.
Clang!
The instant sword met sword, fragments of energy shaved away by the impact scattered around them.
It was a phenomenon that could occur only when people capable of condensing energy densely enough to make it visible—and maintaining that state for a long time—crossed blades.
Green and black motes of light scattered brilliantly like shattered gemstones.
Slash!
But that alone did not satisfy her.
Morning Star made full use of everything she possessed.
The whip.
The roughly one-and-a-half-meter whip burst the bodies of insects just emerging around her and used the remains to obscure her opponent’s vision.
Her white clothes were dirtied in return, but she accepted it.
She was too weak to preserve the immaculate dignity of one above the clouds until the very end.
She would rather die than admit it, but reality remained reality.
The very words—
‘Why did you side with demons when they treat you like this?’
—were themselves proof of her situation.
She was not currently in a position to choose her means or methods.
“Ghk……!”
Her one consolation was that the opponent’s education was shallow and the sword ignorant.
That might have been enough against fools and moderately skilled opponents.
Not against Morning Star.
Taking advantage of the obscured vision, she thrust directly toward the opponent’s upper body.
The opponent hurriedly blocked the point of the rapier with the flat of the sword.
Instead, she put even more strength into the thrust.
Her rapier, Forbidden, would not break anyway.
Cain, who crawled beneath the lake, had provided the scales.
Eve, the featherless bird, had forged it with cold flame.
Adam, who breathed white breath, had tempered it.
And Abel’s offering had completed the blade.
Therefore Morning Star trusted that her sword would not bend and pushed her opponent backward.
The slick mud beneath their feet caused both sword and person to slide together.
Eyes of a similar color widened in apparent surprise.
Kiiing!
Within that moment, Morning Star put strength into her foot.
Crunch.
The foot crushed a ghoul’s skull and dug through the mud until it found solid purchase in the earth.
There was no sliding from the recoil.
She watched her opponent get pushed farther away than she did.
Then she watched their two blades separate because of that added distance.
BOOM!
Her entire body launched forward once again.
Slash!
During that tiny interval, the whip swung and checked—then burst apart—the trash surrounding her.
Beneath the flying flesh and blood, Morning Star struck the opponent’s sword again.
She targeted the weakest portion of the blade.
Clang!
Her rapier collided with the opponent’s sword once more.
She could clearly see the opponent’s eyes darting around, wary that she might slide the blade along and stab.
But why would she take such a dangerous gamble?
A thrust was an attack that invited a counterattack if it failed to kill in one strike, or if the angle deviated even slightly.
A knight’s fight was not about killing the enemy in a single blow.
That tendency became even stronger in a chaotic battle surrounded by enemies.
A knight must always fight while protecting oneself.
Because survival allowed one to kill more enemies.
“You.”
And time was on her side.
Her opponent didn’t seem to realize that at all.
“Isn’t it becoming difficult to breathe?”
“……?”
“Does somewhere in your abdomen not hurt?”
This environment was equally hostile to both of them.
But if asked which of the two was in greater danger, Morning Star would choose her opponent without hesitation.
“As long as you carry Wrath, the curses of hunger and thirst likely cannot touch you. But disease and insects are different.”
Because this place was filled with insects.
And her opponent had far too many wounds for those insects to crawl into.
More precisely—
she had deliberately created them.
“I wonder which will come first. Disease spreading through your body, or the insects laying eggs and hatching.”
Back.
Shoulder.
Side.
Abdomen.
Thigh.
Forearm.
Those were merely the wounds deep enough for muscle to show.
Considering the contaminated mud and insects that had entered them, how long would that life continue?
By now, perhaps several of the creatures were already gnawing on the lungs or other internal organs.
“Cough.”
“As expected.”
Her prediction immediately proved correct.
Before long, the opponent began vomiting blood.
Kiiing!
Even in that state, the figure blocked her sword and kicked at her.
There was something almost admirable about it.
Morning Star redirected the incoming kick with her blade while swinging the whip.
With a subtle snap of her wrist, the whip cracked through the air and attempted to burst open the opponent’s side.
CRACK!
Demonic Energy exploded from the opponent’s body and forcibly pushed away her whip.
“Bleurgh.”
Then the opponent spat out blood again.
But the expression was distinctly different from the first time.
Perhaps because an entire demon dwelled within that body, Demonic Energy vast as a mountain could be seen surging through it.
“Whew. Thank you.”
“……?”
“If I hadn’t known the cause, that could’ve been really bad.”
Then those waves crushed and killed the tiny living things moving throughout the body.
Without inflicting any damage upon the body itself—
the energy destroyed only the tiny insects.
The degree of control was chilling.
Read only on MUGEX
“This is the problem with not having a sense of pain…….”
“…How?”
But Morning Star had never seen a human control energy so naturally.
Not merely herself.
Even searching through the memories of the being who was her origin—
the memories of the source she shared—
she had never seen it.
“…Did Wrath assist you?”
Only Pride and Wrath possessed that degree of control over Demonic Energy or Mana.
Morning Star’s lips pressed together for a moment.
“What?”
“I already found it suspicious that there was no visible effect when you reinforced your body with energy… Ha. So that was it.”
“What??”
When Mana was infused into the body, some of the energy used for reinforcement inevitably leaked outward.
The greater the amount used, the more that escaped energy rose from the body like haze.
It happened to her.
It had apparently happened to the former Knight Commander she had only heard of in stories.
But apparently even that ceased to occur before control at such an astonishing level.
Morning Star gave a hollow laugh at the realization.
“How truly miserable.”
A human could not possibly have reached that realm.
Wrath must have helped.
And because of that, she felt even more wretched.
The goal she had only vaguely estimated until now had become reality before her and struck her painfully to the bone.
“Am I truly incapable of reaching the heavens……!”
She had wanted to reach the sky.
Following the yearning cried out by her foundation, she had wanted somehow to break her origin and take that place herself.
Could she, unable to imitate even this, ever reach those heights?
Could she stand in the heavens?
“I……!!”
Envy and jealousy surged through her.
She tightened her grip on the sword.
『Wrath’s presence keeps being felt nearby… Perhaps Wrath noticed the plan and is coming to ruin it.』
She knew that this very jealousy and rivalry only widened the distance between herself and her origin.
But she could not endure it.
『Perhaps that is for the best. Even if I keep a piece like you in reserve, there will not be many more opportunities to inflict damage upon the city. It may be better to expend you now. If Wrath interferes, the plan will fail regardless. If you can inflict even slightly more damage beforehand, there is no loss on our side.』
Simply by existing, that being caused her original to use her as a disposable piece.
She hated it.
And she envied it terribly.
She needed power like that.
Power that would allow her to stand completely on her own.
Power that would resolve the yearning her origin had planted in her!
“Why are you suddenly having some kind of episode—!”
BOOM!
She rapidly drove back her bewildered opponent.
It was not particularly easy.
The sword aura, though it conveniently cleared away the surrounding demons, was difficult to deal with.
And whenever she blocked it, the demons immediately filled the vacant space and constantly sought an opportunity to attack her back.
They too became fairly dangerous if she let down her guard.
Clang, clang!
But she was still someone who had earned the position of senior knight.
Her opponent was not.
Facing an incoming strike, she raised her arm.
Grab!
Her opponent’s sword passed through the open space between her arm and side.
But the opponent stepped forward—
and she stepped forward as well.
As a result, it was not the blade but the sword arm that became trapped between her arm and torso.
She restrained the arm by pressing her upper arm against her side.
Naturally, if the opponent focused strength entirely on pulling free, the restraint would break.
That was not a major problem.
By then, her rapier would stab first.
Slip!
But just as her weapon began to move, a new sword appeared in the opponent’s empty hand—
judging by its shape and length, likely a Zweihander.
It wasn’t completely unexpected.
The opponent had already summoned and dismissed blades from empty space earlier.
But that would become the opponent’s decisive mistake.
She struck the flat of the weapon directly with the pommel of her rapier.
The sword tilted under the pommel’s force and struck the opponent’s head.
There was a blade caught in between, but in effect, metal had smashed into the skull.
“Ghk.”
The opponent reflexively squeezed the eyes shut and pulled the restrained arm free.
Thud!
Before another longsword could appear in that arm, her foot kicked forward, shoving the opponent in the abdomen.
“Hup.”
Her rapier shot toward the retreating body at high speed.
The opponent barely summoned a longsword in time and forced it into the rapier’s path.
CRACK!
With a sharp metallic sound, the longsword struck at a single point by the rapier snapped cleanly.
The recoil pushed Morning Star backward as well and left her wrist aching, but she had suffered no loss.
There was no prey better than a knight who had lost a weapon.
“Now—”
Of course, based on what the opponent had shown, the Zweihander remained.
But someone who hadn’t even mastered the basic longsword—
could such a person truly wield a Zweihander well?
If the opponent had been skilled with a Zweihander, would they have tried to face her with a longsword from the beginning?
“—it ends.”
Impossible.
It could not be.
Therefore her judgment was correct.
Whether the opponent struggled a little longer or not—
she would be the one to win.
Her blade shot toward the opponent’s heart.
‘Ah, but you should hear the truth before you die. Right?’
Suddenly, the opponent’s eyes turned red as rubies.
“Atia!!”
At that exact moment, a vermilion sword blazing beautifully like flame was thrown toward them from far atop the wall.
Demonic Energy dancing through the air caught it like a fishing line.
‘Congratulations. There aren’t many who have received my help without paying a price.’
At the same time, enormous Demonic Energy poured from the opponent and seized Morning Star’s feet.
Burning.
For a brief instant, the illusion shook her instincts and created a single second of opportunity.
‘I’ve done everything I’m going to do for you, okay?’
At last, the vermilion sword landed in the opponent’s hand.
I’m going to lose.
And with that, Morning Star gained an enlightenment befitting her name.
She would be defeated.
“You.”
Without devouring Wrath’s vessel and inheriting that power.
Without using it to attempt her rebellion.
She would die.
“May you perish together with Wrath.”
That was so unbearably miserable.
Morning Star did not close her eyes as the black-and-yellow flame came toward her.
The blade plunged into her heart.
* * *
『Just you wait. I will return as the heavens themselves!』
The figure turned the glass tube containing the emerald this way and that while reflecting upon the past.
The increasingly fractured gem now had nothing left to do but collapse completely.
“I wanted to know the strength of a homunculus created by mixing the blood of a Great Demon with a human……”
This emerald revealed only the homunculus’s condition.
It did not reveal location or circumstances.
That was deeply regrettable.
If it was going to die anyway, the figure wanted at least to know how it died—
and what reaction it showed as death approached.
“Are you dying with arrogant eyes?”
“Or are you struggling desperately?”
Perhaps its death might even resemble the death of the one who had provided the blood.
Crack!
The gemstone shattered completely.