80 – The Language of Dragons
“…What in the world am I witnessing?”
“I… I’m not sure myself.”
“Is… is that boy facing it alone?
That monstrous thing?”
Several wounded knights
surveyed the chaos that had become their surroundings.
Unfitting for the beautiful moonlight and night sky,
a thick stench of blood and grotesque corpses.
From the unidentified black flora,
survivors writhed, struggling to live.
And, amidst that vile battlefield,
their sounds echoed through the forest.
The sounds of battle, of combat.
“Senior?! You talked a big game, but you’re
falling far short of my expectations, aren’t you?!”
“Don’t you worry, I can still kill the likes of you…!”
Black, viscous, revolting to even look upon,
truly a monster ripped straight from legend.
And in contrast to it,
a boy of obsidian-deep and beautiful black.
There was no one present who wasn’t struck by astonishment
as they watched the two of them fight.
Flashes of light erupted,
and the sound of something clashing
rang out, clear and sharp.
Numerous small blades sliced through the air,
followed by colossal tentacles surging in their wake.
Slashes, cleaves, stabs, downward strikes.
Throws, feints, flurries, and so on, and so on.
A multitude of combat styles
manifested freely from their bodies.
Every single one a lethal attack.
Normally, at least one of them
should have fallen already in a fight like this,
but they had not.
Nor did their attacks cease.
Compared to the countless slashes that cleaved the air,
the spatter of blood was maddeningly infrequent.
So close, yet just out of reach,
or deflected by something unseen.
It was a clash, a battle, *their* war—enough to steal the very soul from those who watched.
“…The entire company, draw your swords.”
“Sir? What suddenly—”
“Are we knights, or are we merely brutes?”
And the number of those who drew inspiration from that fight
was immeasurable.
The fervor of that battle reached even the knights who, moments before,
had lost all will to fight at the sight of the monster.
“Were you so foolish, so lacking in conscience,
as to leave the vengeance of your comrades to another?”
“Even so, so many against just one man…!”
“Is that truly the reason?
That we stand here, idle?”
“….”
“Why not speak the truth?
Admit that you are afraid, that you are fearful.”
“….”
“To feel fear is not shameful.
Perhaps that boy is simply extraordinary.
In a situation where a single misstep means death,
he shows absolutely no fear.”
As he said this, the Knight Commander removed his steel helm,
and a resolute gleam shone in his eyes as he smiled.
A grim determination that seemed ill-fitting
for the eyes of such an old man.
“However, we cannot allow ourselves to be.
We have lost comrades, and we are knights.”
“….”
“If only to stand proud before those who fell before us,
now is not the time for fear.”
“….”
“Now is the time to overcome that fear, and charge that fiend.”
The Knight Commander strode forward, with heavy steps.
Dragging the massive sword, which even to look at seemed impossibly heavy.
With a weary groan, he dragged the weight of his ancient armor,
inching towards that battlefield.
“And isn’t it absurd?
That the Commander is the one struck with terror.”
“C..Commander!”
“Just, wait a moment—”
“You are not obliged to follow.
This is the burden of my rank, and my own stubborn will.”
Finally, he moved forward.
Even as the blade of his sword trembled.
And he prepared to strike.
Alongside his hesitation.
The blade everyone witnessed,
Until the very end, it must have been beautiful.
*
To the right, no, the left.
The direction the tendrils lash.
So certain, I brought my blade to meet them,
But there was no chance my steel would reach.
The instant I lock onto the path,
It contorts away with unnerving reflexes,
And at once, another attack comes from elsewhere.
Yet I cannot simply stand still.
If I do, one day, death will surely be
my only reward.
The proof of that is the monster’s unblemished hide,
Even where my blade had been lodged just moments ago,
No wound is visible.
Its regeneration, perhaps, is far
Faster than anything seen before.
Unlike myself, it doesn’t even rely on mana,
And unless I discern the limits of this power,
I must force a conclusion as quickly as possible.
One way or another, I must seize
a chance in this deadlock,
And that moment arrived sooner
than I anticipated.
The moment I saw a few tendrils, their trajectory faltering,
coming from the right, I hurled a throwing dagger,
He slips through, narrowly avoiding it.
And,
the tentacles, their trajectories already warped,
“Huh?”
begin to twist even further.
Like a spiderweb.
“This…it’s gotten quite tangled, eh…
It’ll take a while to unravel—”
“You don’t think I’ll give you that time,
do you?”
“Haha, of course not…”
Ignoring the tentacles, barely a fingertip’s graze,
he begins to hack and slash.
Uncaring if a finger is lost,
he only focuses on targeting the vitals before him.
Eyes, carotid artery, chest, liver, ribs.
He stabs at each area in turn,
but No. 8 doesn’t even flinch.
Rather, ignoring everything,
he only attempts to attack me.
Like a zombie,
relentlessly pressing forward.
“Haha, you seem awfully weakened, Senior.
Looks like this life was a little too comfortable, eh?”
“….”
And the fellow fusses with the injured area, before addressing me again with a truly innocent voice.
A voice that sounded as if pure innocence had become materialized.
A voice so utterly unfitting for the tentacles that relentlessly lash out at me.
“When I saw you were born into a Duke’s family this time,
I really had to wrack my brains on how to get in your way, you see.”
“….”
“But, it’s a Duke, innit?
Even as a servant it isn’t easy to get in there.
So I even considered annihilating the entire ducal family,
but fortunately, the Duke took care of it himself, see?”
“….”
“After that, well, it was simple!
If I just eliminated Senior’s emotional support…
“Seemed like you’d destroy yourself just fine on your own!”
“…What?”
In that instant, the frantic gears of my mind seized up,
The eager reflexes of my body stuttered to a halt,
And the price for that lapse was clear.
My unresponsive form went sailing,
Crashing into the far corner.
“Gh… Ack…!”
“Well, I wasn’t particularly fond of that method, y’know.
Because it wasn’t like I was tormenting *you*, senpai!”
“….”
“But what can you do?
Majority rules, that’s all there is to it!”
I heard bone snapping.
And not just any bone, but one deep inside.
The sheer pain made it impossible to pinpoint
The precise location of the break.
Every inch of me was screaming, raw with accumulated fatigue and agony.
Normally, in a situation like this, I wouldn’t
Move rashly.
I would remain calm, try to talk or do something,
Anything to buy time and locate the damage.
Had I done that, I could have
Continued the fight with more stability.
And yet, I rose reflexively.
Just like the words that spilled from my mouth, unbidden.
“…What did you say?”
“Honestly, being the Duchess of a Duke’s family,
I thought approaching you would be difficult, you know?”
“What… did you say?” I asked again.
“Turned out it was surprisingly easy to get close, so
The plan moved ahead a bit faster than we expected!”
The words that tumbled from his lips
Weren’t the answer to my desperate question.
He was just saying whatever he pleased,
And from the other side of his shoulder,
Another tendril unfurled.
Another tendril fashioned from what was once
Human.
“Rest easy now, *seonbae*.
I only plan on taking your arms and legs, you see!”
“What… what did you say…!”
It comes.
A tangle of his tentacles.
I tried to dodge, but my body wouldn’t move,
and my hands had no strength left to stop that overwhelming mass.
Tentacles closing in right before me.
Even when I instinctively squeezed my eyes shut,
he didn’t answer my question.
I didn’t feel the dread of dying.
Arms and legs could be remade, after all.
I was just annoyed.
My body’s refusal to move.
The unprecedented chaos swirling in my mind.
So I shouted.
Laced with an unease I couldn’t name.
“What did you say?!”
“Quiet.”
And then, again,
two colors appeared before me.
Cold and warmth,
blue and red,
opposing energies
fused right in front of me, seizing the tentacles.
“If you’re going to fight, focus on the fight.”
“…Princess?”
And the woman who appeared before me
had jade-colored hair, as if embracing all those opposing forces.
*
“Why is the Princess here…?”
“Am I not allowed to be here?”
“No, it’s not that, but…”
It wasn’t just me who was taken aback
by her sudden appearance.
I could feel the gazes
of many around us.
“…This is a rather
dangerous place for the Princess to be.”
“It’s alright. Not something for you to fret over.”
“..That’s not what I meant—”
“You.”
My words are cut off by her,
at the same moment her words are also.
“You must recover.
Until then, I can buy you time.”
“….”
“Thinking like this right now…
I’m likely not the only one.”
So saying, she
extends a finger and points in a direction,
and in that direction, the ebony tendrils of flesh
that had moments ago surged towards me, and
the silvery, shimmering sacred liquor and sword,
were dancing in the moonlight.
Dancing with a desperate fervor, at that.
“Haha, the old man’s not really my type, see?”
“Shut your trap, you monster…!”
“Senior? I’ll be right over, so
wait there like a good boy, you hear?
The Knight Commander, unleashing
a splendid sword dance unbefitting his age,
and the fellow nonchalantly
receiving it while looking this way.
That grinning face,
the smile still hasn’t faded.
Provoking such envy.
“..Ha, envy, you say?”
“..Have I gone mad?”
Ignoring her gaze, the way she stares as if I’ve lost my mind, I accelerate my thoughts.
This body that cannot even twitch a finger,
these muscles still screaming in agony,
these bones shattered and fragmented, unrecognizable…
How can I make them move?
And then it came to me.
A way to resolve all of this.
There might be some side effects, but
what does that matter?
Here, where I can survive unscathed,
and find a way to kill that b*stard.
I whisper, calmly.
“Mouvior.”
“…Huh?”
Dazed voices echoed around me, but
all my focus remained solely on my right hand.
My right hand, moving as though nothing were amiss.
“H-How…? The injuries from just now were surely…
And this language…?”
“Mouvior.”
Once more, my leg, embedded in the rubble,
rose high into the sky.
“W-Wait, Jennison…!”
“Mouvior.”
“Mouvior…”
“Mouvior…”
Her pleas reached me,
but I did not stop. No, I *could* not stop.
They were not the kind of trivial words
that could make me cease.
Words containing truth,
containing mana,
containing the very essence of phenomenon itself,
the Dragon Tongue resonated through the Great Forest.