78 – Fate

“Kyaaah!!!”

“M-My arm…!!”

Someone’s arm was torn away,

and the head of another vanished.

“F-Fire, someone use fire…!”

“It is no use!!

It doesn’t catch, it just falls off!!”

“Cast other magics, then!

Where have all the mages gone…!”

“I-It is no use…!

Magic has no effect!!”

“Motherfucker..! What the hell are those flowers?!”

No matter what magic they use, they can’t even touch the flowers,

it’s as if the magic itself avoids them.

“C-Captain..!

It seems to be cuttin- Aghhh!!”

“Damn it, everyone, raise your weapons!!

Evacuating the wounded takes priority!”

“T-The vines are blocking the path..!”

Vines dangled thickly from the flower’s stems,

grabbing at their ankles.

The screams didn’t cease.

Bloodstains spread,

and screams echoed far and wide.

“Diiiieeee!!”

“You must’ve looked down… on me every day, huh?!”

“V-Vice-captain? Wh..what are you… aack!!”

To make matters worse, even those who had been showing strange symptoms

were now freed from their restraints and running amok,

doubling the chaos

and severely intensifying the pain.

The fact that the blades of people

who until recently shared their lives were now aimed at them.

That alone was enough to cloud the judgment

of even the most level-headed knights.

But even amidst all that, there was someone who laughed.

“What’s so funny that you’re grinning like that..!”

“How can I *not* laugh seeing this shitshow?”

The iridescent assault didn’t stop.

The tree roots still followed her,

charging like sharp awls,

ice crystals shot out sharply

from her left hand,

and a flame in the shape of a sword,

dragging on the ground, flickered from her right hand.

A yellow light flickered like lightning

from her entire body,

and her eyes were filled with an

unprecedented killing intent.

If anyone with even a little knowledge of spirits or magic

were to see this spectacle,

It was a spectacle to make one fall backward in disbelief.

What Sylvia was accomplishing now,

it was simply an impossible feat.

Wielding the power of multiple spirits,

without even a contract with those spirits.

And that, too, was a magnitude of power

only an advanced spirit mage could handle.

But, the expression of the person achieving

this incredible feat was not so bright.

“Hahaha, your expression is much more entertaining than before!”

“….”

Undoubtedly, her power was strong.

A judgment made not subjectively, but objectively.

She wielded her flames and ice in both hands,

enhanced the speed of her entire body with wind,

and even created a dynamic visual acuity and reflexes

that would fit her speed.

Even if her attack failed,

there would be trees to follow after her.

But, why.

Why couldn’t she reach the opponent before her?

“It’s becoming noticeable that you are slowly getting slower,

are you thinking too much?”

“Kuh… hck.”

Before she knew it, a voice resounded behind her,

and the shock of tearing flesh was felt in her back.

She fell straight to the floor, and

something plunged deeply into her leg.

“Ah… ugh…!”

“You won’t be able to move so annoyingly now.”

Looking up, her foot was

pierced by the boy’s arm,

and from her wounded area came a terrible pain

and a sound as if something were corroding.

But the boy didn’t stop there.

A fleeting feeling that a red light,

flashed for a moment in the boy’s black eyes,

and the boy raised another hand,

aiming straight for her face.

To crush her face.

To compress it.

“Kkh… Hngh!”

“Huh?”

But what the boy desired

did not come to pass.

Though he believed his hand had sunk in true,

somehow she had extracted it.

Turning his head to discern what had happened,

he saw the ground deeply gouged beneath where her legs stood rooted.

“Ah~ you dug into the ground, extracted your leg

into that space, and evaded me, yes?”

“..Your perception is keen.”

“Well, even so, with that leg you cannot mov–”

The boy’s words broke off midway,

because the way she stood

seemed far too intact.

Impossible.

Ordinarily, it would have to be.

The boy hadn’t merely

pierced her leg.

He had injected his own energy within,

melting away her afflicted flesh.

And that energy had most certainly

seeped into her body.

Therefore, ordinarily,

she should absolutely not be able to stand.

“..How can you be standing, though?”

“Poisonous, indeed, your energy is.

Even with my best efforts, it took this long.”

So saying, she subtly

extended her leg,

and only then could the boy observe.

That a verdant, luminous energy

was subtly gathered there.

Like a single vacuole, you might say.

The power of this mystical energy

did not cease there.

The boy’s dark, turbid energy

was, very slowly, being drawn out.

Into that verdant, pulsing aura.

“Heh heh… the spirits must cherish you quite a bit?

That stuff, it’s definitely not easy to escape.”

“Why, envious, are you? I can understand, considering you’re someone who likely feels unloved.”

“Don’t speak such rubbish!”

The boy was about to lunge at her,

but stopped short in his tracks.

The reason was simple.

“Hh… hff… hooo…”

“What… what is this…?”

“You… you killed my family!!”

An arrow grazed the boy’s ear

as it flew past.

Turning back, he saw a male elf,

already notching another arrow.

Before the boy, incredulous, could move,

another attack rained down from yet another direction.

Barely managing to duck and avoid them, the boy

raised his head and demanded,

“What now… who are you?”

“ALL UNITS!! Assemble,

Knights of the Empire!! The enemy is but one!!”

It was the knight from just moments before, the one they called Commander,

with his white hair and beard.

The knight’s slash rushed

towards him.

Instantly, the boy attempted to manipulate those he had imbued with his power.

To use them as meat shields perhaps?

Or to sow chaos?

The boy’s true purpose was unknown,

but it was certainly not a bad tactic.

Yet, there was not even a twitch.

Nowhere was the boy’s aura

to be felt.

Instead, the aura he had spread seemed to

slowly return to him.

“Heh heh, did you kill them all?

All those people… all of them?!”

“Not a vanquishing, but a sacrifice.

A sacrifice… to kill you!!”

The words barely finished leaving his lips when the

old man before him leveled his blade at the boy.

A razor’s edge, cruelly sharp.

His eyes narrowed in response, becoming just as keen.

A shimmer of moisture gathered at the corners.

At the edges of his eyes, eyes that had just run through their comrades.

Finally, a single tear escaped, and the remaining knights followed his lead.

With one unified heart,

they gazed upon the old knight’s back and the boy.

Rising with resentment for the boy, and

pride for the knight.

A burning desire for vengeance for the

friends they had lived alongside only moments ago.

An exploding anguish for the

families they had shared meals with just moments ago.

All sparks of that resentment converged on

none other than the boy, and

the boy, who bore the brunt of their gaze,

appeared unmoved.

He merely stood, frozen in place.

And Silvia, who had been watching him closely

since a while ago, sensed her chance.

‘I don’t know what’s happening, but…

you can’t lose focus during a war…!’

“…this is messed up.”

But the boy’s frozen body

moved, violently so.

As if something inside was trying to burst free.

“I really hated things like this,

weaklings, not knowing their place, stirring things up.”

“…wh..what?!”

“If you’re weak, shouldn’t you just endure, and endure, and endure?

Shouldn’t you just accept the fate you’re given?

Why won’t you guys!! Do that!!!”

From the boy’s writhing body,

something finally tore through his shoulder.

Something that seemed like it didn’t belong

in this world.

Reflecting a grotesque light.

“Guh… guh-urggh!”

“Wh… what is th…”

“BWaaaRRRGH!!”

Those who saw it recoiled, regardless of their kind.

Some couldn’t hold it in and began to vomit.

What the boy had produced was a simple tentacle.

A tentacle so transparent one could see right through it.

Compared to the things the boy had summoned before,

or the acts he had performed, this was a mere trifle.

However, the reason for their reaction was:

“H… how can a person…”

“W…wait, it’s moving…”

“A…alive?!”

Inside it, there were people.

No, there *were* people.

Their scalps melted away, not a strand of hair remained.

Their white skulls were starkly visible.

One side of a face was completely crushed,

an eyeball pulled loose and dangling grotesquely.

A shoulder dislocated, yet unbroken, stretched

long, long, long.

These people were gathered in one place.

So many people, clustered and compacted inside the small tentacle,

forming a single tower.

Moreover, it *moved*.

They were small, but undeniably moving.

They were reeling from the sight unfolding before them,

but only for a moment.

The boy spoke, his voice cutting through the air.

“You are weak, weak and pathetic.

Therefore, you will be subjugated by me.

And contrary to what you might hope,

this situation will never be reversed.

That is the fate of the weak,

the privilege and talent possessed only by the strong.

Therefore, you will simply die here.”

The boy’s aura had completely changed,

a world apart from what it had been.

No one dared to move rashly.

Even knights who prided themselves on holding their own

were often seen fainting,

and even Sylvia was barely moving,

aided by the spirits.

Before anyone realized, the boy’s orange hair

had been dyed jet black,

and his eyes, now dark,

gleamed with a crimson light.

“..Throwing a damn tantrum, are we?”

“..Hey, this ain’t a situation for you to be jumpin’ into…!”

“Out of my way.”

And so, someone shoved aside the silver armors

that had been standing there, frozen.

A lithe shadow passed through the armor,

shining beautifully in the moonlight.

“..Honestly, just hearing the voice from afar,

I was half in doubt.

No, more like, I didn’t want to believe it.”

“..Jenison?”

“I never imagined it would really be you…

I don’t know if I should be happy about this.”

Even Sylvia’s voice, interjecting in the middle,

couldn’t stop him.

“Really, it’s been a long time, Number 8…!”

“Keehee, it’s beeennn ages, yeah?! Senpai.”

A reunion of a very, very old bond

wasn’t something that a mere long-lived species could stop.