Chapter 35: Darkness and Light (Page 2)
Ianna had been training without rest ever since Shailince’s death.
Her daily schedule was packed nearly to the brim with her training. She spent almost all her time in her personal training grounds.
Meanwhile, Ex-knights was providing the Revolution Army with their full support from behind the scenes. The fires of revolution burned brighter thanks to the second wind that was Ex-knights’ support.
The Revolution Army had been seized with apprehension for a moment when news had spread that Louise had been badly wounded during her battle against Shailince and needed time to recuperate because her injuries were difficult to treat even with the spirits’ help.
But then the core members of the Revolution Army had announced that people who were just as powerful as Louise was would be aiding their cause. And as if to prove the verity of those words, the Revolution Army successfully repelled or reconciled with the Bahamut army even in Louise’s absence, and the revolution was proceeding smoothly.
Their anxieties extinguished like a candleflame, and they became as a colossal wave that crashed into the entirety of Bahamut.
The Revolution Army had only one goal.
To reclaim their freedom by neutralizing the Bahamut army and killing the imperial family.
The winds of revolution spread throughout Bahamut like a contagious disease, and all the empire’s people, save for those in the army, welcomed the revolution. Moreover, most of the people who did not welcome the revolution either grew dispirited and lived quietly or were influenced by their surroundings into changing their mind and joining the Revolution Army. There were also many soldiers who had deserted the Bahamut army to join the Revolution Army instead.
“You’re going to join the Entulure Army?”
“Yeah. I heard that you can become a bigshot in the future if you accomplish a lot of merits there.”
The Revolution Army was an alliance between several forces that had each declared a revolt. They all shared the larger goal of bringing about a revolution, but they also each possessed their own separate goals. Some of those forces wanted to become the new foundations of the empire after the imperial family was gone, and others wanted to establish a new kingdom altogether.
“I want to stay in the empire.”
“The empire’s finished. We need to start anew.”
The people of Bahamut knocked on the doors of and joined the forces they liked best in order to survive the changing of times. They could not survive the stormy seas on a small sailboat. They needed to board a bigger ship.
But the Revolution Army’s smooth progress was stalled only a few weeks after Shailince’s death.
‘Pakalatua has begun to move.’
Arhad threw the report on top of his desk after he had finished reading it.
His spies, who were scattered all throughout Bahamut, had informed him that Pakalatua, the first imperial knight order, had returned and were disciplining the military and violently suppressing the Revolution Army.
Arhad had also learned, from the Maron spies who had infiltrated the Bahamut army directly, that the imperial family had ordered the Knights of Pakalatua to rip out the revolution from its roots.
Maron, the core forces of the Revolution Army, decided that there was no longer any point to laying low and openly asked Ex-knights for assistance.
‘The Revolution Army doesn’t stand a chance against Pakalatua. The bastards are super soldiers who gave up their humanity to become Bahamut’s hands and feet. Even we have no choice but to send our most elite troops to counter them.’
But more importantly…….
‘Pakalatua was with the imperial family.’
Arhad had always been receiving reports regarding the whereabouts of Pakalatua, Bahamut’s most elite knight order, in real time.
Pakalatua had been participating in the war with Taylon at first, and then they had vanished alongside Taylon and Isabella a few months ago. It was extremely likely that they were accompanying the imperial family.
‘If Pakalatua’s back, then the imperial family might be back too.’
But the spies had not reported any sightings of the imperial family.
‘They either sent Pakalatua back alone, or they’re also back and they’re quietly observing the situation.’
Arhad gave more weight to the latter possibility. The imperial family may not have any familial love for one another, but Shailince was still their brethren and a powerful ally, and she had died without ever having even the chance to relay back news. They would probably want to assess the situation as quickly as possible.
Moreover, the Bahamut army were the livestock that the imperial family had specifically raised to be their warhorses. The soldiers were still little more than tools, but the imperial family had taken great pains to raise them up, and they would not keep quiet as their army was eliminated not during warfare but because of something as absurd as a revolution.
‘If only one of them is back, then it’s probably Isabella. They’re probably sniffing around my surroundings while trying to gain some intel on me, just like how I’m trying to sniff them out too.’
Taylon would have sent Isabella back first if he had yet to finish absorbing the dragons. Even if Taylon was finished with the dragons, he was still the type of person to send a subordinate out to perform trivial tasks like scouting instead of doing it himself.
‘But they haven’t infiltrated into Ex-knights just yet.’
Arhad hadn’t been moping around doing nothing while Ianna was asleep. He had placed the entirety of Ex-knights’ territory under his defensive domain. He would know instantly as soon as the imperial family took even a single step inside.
‘And that’s everything I can deduce about the imperial family for now.’
Arhad wracked his brains.
‘There’s too little information.’
Investigation was the first and foremost priority when it came to facing powerful foes. Information was essential to defeating one’s enemy.
Arhad shared his heart and soul with Taylon, so he tried to use this to obtain information about the latter, but to no avail.
Both Arhad’s and Taylon’s egos were too strong, and they were at a standstill against each other because they were both cautious against letting their enemy take what was theirs.
Accordingly, Taylon shared neither Bahamut’s full power, which he had obtained, nor the dragons’ powers with Arhad. Bahamut’s soul and the dragons’ souls were unlike the Demon’s soul, which was fragmented and incomplete, so they were not forcefully shared between blood ties. Arhad couldn’t glean any additional information about Taylon either.
Taylon, on the other hand, possessed half of Arhad’s soul and was therefore able to share not only all of Arhad’s memories and the knowledge he had possessed from his past life but also his right to control mana —Arhad was infuriated by the unfairness of it all.
‘I’ll need to come into direct contact with him if I want to learn more.’
Arhad had been trying to locate Taylon as the latter was devouring the dragons ever since Ianna had awoken, but Taylon had hidden himself so thoroughly that Arhad had not been able to find a single hair on Taylon’s head. Arhad was certain that Taylon had created a barrier and was safely on the other side.
‘But the story changes if the bastards left their barrier in order to assess the situation and suppress the Revolution Army. If that’s the case, then I’ll easily be able to drag them to me.’
Tap tap.
Arhad slowly tapped his finger against his desk as he organized his thoughts, and then he made up his mind and stood up.
‘I’ll take the stage personally.’
There was a limit to how much information he could obtain while holing up like this.
He needed to walk into the den with decently sized bait if he wanted to catch a monster. Arhad himself would be that bait.
He refused to let the Revolution Army fall apart when they had worked so hard to put it together in the first place. And so, he decided to take the opportunity to deal with Pakalatua as well.
‘They’ll come crawling to me of their own accord if I pick a fight with them.’
Arhad contacted Ianna.
Ianna’s presence was the only reason why he had been able to decide to step forward personally. Ianna was the highest-level administrator of the defensive systems that Arhad had created. Like Arhad, she too would know instantly the moment the Bahamut imperial family stepped foot inside Ex-knights. And Ianna was more than capable of dealing with even the worst crises on her own should anything happen while Arhad was away.
[Yes?]
“I’m going to step out for a while, Ianna.”
Arhad got down to business as soon as Ianna picked up.
[Is it to obtain more information on the imperial family? And to handle Pakalatua?]
Arhad hadn’t told her anything other than the fact that he would be leaving for a while, but Ianna had already seen through his plans as completely as if she had been reading them straight from his mind.
Arhad smiled to himself because he was happy about how quick Ianna was on the uptake before he told her that she was right.
“At least one member of the imperial family’s probably come crawling out if Pakalatua’s back, so we need to extract whatever information from them that we can. And I’m also planning to deal with Pakalatua while I’m at it.”
[You’ll be so busy. What if we use Zeigellant against Pakalatua?]
“It won’t be as effective if we use those bastards right now.”
[Then what if I go instead?]
“The point of my little outing will be to locate the imperial family and to obtain more intelligence. It’ll be better for me to go since I have all sorts of magic at my disposal. Besides, I have a lot less work to do here now that I’m done setting up our defenses and getting our business affairs in order, and Rikijen is more than capable of handling the rest himself. It’s a waste of human resources for me to lock myself up in the castle all the time.”
[Hmmm…….]
“And every last moment is important to you right now, no?”
[I see. I understand. I’ll leave this to you,]
Ianna said a little indistinctly. She continued,
[I think it’s the right call for me to focus on my training for now. I feel like I’m be able to open yet a new set of doors once I reach my latest goal.]
Arhad flinched. It had barely been any time at all since Ianna had already grown blindingly stronger, and now she wanted to open new doors already?
“You really are remarkable. I’ll be cheering for you. Oh, and it’s possible that the imperial family will realize that you’re back once they see that I’ve made my move.”
[That is fine. Please do things as you see fit. But you need to call for me immediately the moment things get dangerous.]
“Of course I will.”
[Please call for me immediately should you ever run into the bastards even if you aren’t in danger. I think it’ll be better to get rid of at least one of them as quickly as possible even if it means resorting to ambushing them. I can make quick work of Isabella. And I’m confident that I won’t lose even if Taylon shows up.]
It must be true if Ianna said so. After all, Ianna never said anything that she didn’t mean. She had kept her vow to protect Arhad even when she had been forced to fight all three members of the Bahamut imperial family by herself.
“You want to try fighting them, don’t you?”
[I do. It’s not possible to gauge how powerful your opponent is until you actually fight them. It’s a waste of time to stay back and observe them from afar all the time.]
“All right. I’ll let you know when the time comes. I’ll contact you once I’ve obtained important information, so stay put and focus on your training until then.”
[I’ll be waiting.]
“Waiting won’t get in the way of your training, will it?”
[I am always ready to do battle, and I won’t lose focus on my training on account of having to wait for you. Besides, I’m not even nervous because I trust you to stay safe.]
Arhad couldn’t help but smile at how truly confident she was. Ianna continued,
[Let’s do our best.]
And so, his conversation with Ianna ended on a clean and refreshing note.
Then, Arhad immediately sought out Eiji.
“You’re going personally?”
Eiji, who had been working so furiously hard that he barely even had the time to look up, was surprised when Arhad told him about his plans. Then, Eiji continued,
“Then again, we were able to eliminate Shailince easily because we had a lot of information about her and we prepared thoroughly through gritted teeth, but Taylon and Isabella are another story.”
Eiji was surprised, but he wasn’t anxious. Arhad had been their final bastion while Ianna had still been asleep, but now Ianna, who was more monstrous than even the monsters, was firmly back on the side of the living.
“What kinds of information shall I prepare?”
“Get me a list of the regions where Pakalatua’s appeared, as well as a list of any battles that the Revolution Army is likely to lose.”
“Roger that. But are you planning to fight in the open?”
“That’s the plan. I’ll leave the clean up to you.”
“I’ll have to be careful about managing the rumors because a lot of people will say that Ex-knights is growing greedy for Bahamut’s land if you step up and join the fight personally. Don’t touch any civilians, and please try to protect them too if the situation allows. Don’t do anything else after getting rid of the Bahamut army, and don’t lay a finger on any of Bahamut’s territory.”
Arhad assented to all of Eiji’s requests, and Eiji began preparing the information that Arhad had asked of him with renewed vigor.
Arhad finished his preparations a few hours later and departed the royal castle of Ex-kngihts. It was his first time leaving the castle in a truly long while.
He studied the map that he had already memorized one last time. He was choosing the route that he planned to take.
His goal was to teleport all throughout Bahamut to aid the Revolution Army if they were in danger and to lure out the imperial family by making a mess of Bahamut.
‘I’m sure they’ll come crawling if I openly start killing off the Bahamut army.’
But he needed to ensure that he didn’t encounter them either too early or too late. Encountering the imperial family was his end goal, but he didn’t want to face them too soon because he also needed to cull Pakalatua’s numbers.
Eiji and the executives of the Revolution Army would take care of the rumors that spread amongst the civilians, so all Arhad had to do was control any reports that the Bahamut army made directly.
Arhad visited every location he had marked on the map as he confirmed the information that Eiji had provided him.
“Arghh!”
Several hundred members of the Revolution Army were stirring up a cloud of dust behind them as they fled like a flock of deer from a pride of lions. Several dozens of black shadows were chasing after them as they ran away mindlessly while frothing at their mouths.
It was the Knights of Pakalatua.
Pakalatua the Strongest. They had once been objects of pride and awe to the people of Bahamut alongside the Bahamut imperial family, but now the knight order symbolized terror itself.
‘Monsters!’
‘We can’t beat them…….’
Pakalatua was on a completely different level from the other soldiers of the Bahamut army that the Revolution Army had faced thus far.
For starters, unlike the regular Bahamut army, they could not speak with the Knights of Pakalatua at all. Pakalatua ignored any and every attempt at conversation and simply continued their slaughter like dolls who knew nothing but how to kill.
The Revolution Army had given up on the idea of speaking with them and had tried fighting back or hiding, but to no avail. They were killed on the spot if they tried to fight back, and they died where they were hiding if they tried to hide. Pakalatua used their extraordinary strength to massacre the Revolution Army. Each and every member of Pakalatua was a monster of the highest order. And so, the Revolution Army had no choice but to flee from them.
‘The revolution will fail.’
‘We took this too lightly. How are we possibly supposed to beat them?’
There were roughly a thousand members of the Knights of Pakalatua. Several of Pakalatua’s companies, alongside a few platoons and squadrons, were assigned the mission to butcher the Revolution Army.
The Revolution Army’s blood flowed like a river in any battlefield where Pakalatua intervened, and the rotten stench of despair dispersed throughout the entire region. The sparks of revolution, which had begun igniting after Shailince’s death, were being stomped out by Pakalatua one after another.
“…….”
Arhad watched quietly as everything happened.
Everything that his cold gaze touched was transformed into new information. And the overabundance of information fell systematically into order as soon as it was transferred into his brain.
Scratch.
Arhad scribbled a line on his map. The line twisted and turned as it was reconstructed into an elaborate road. He scanned through his completed map one last time before he folded it back up and pushed it into his pocket.
He had decided on a route.
‘Shall I start now?’
He promptly teleported over to his first destination.
Slash!
A gigantic sword was pulled out of thin air as soon as he teleported. The dwarves had forged it for him, and, though it looked different, it was similar to Ianna’s sword in function. It was an excellent sword that was unlikely to ever be destroyed because it was so highly proficient in conducting and concentrating aura.
“Hwoo…….”
Arhad let out a short breath and he grasped his sword tightly.
If Ianna was a sword, then Arhad was a shield.
Arhad had started developing all of his defensive abilities to the extreme ever since he had established Ex-knights. But his idea of defense wasn’t necessarily limited to simply blocking attacks.
It was often said that ‘the best defense is a good offense.’ Depending on the situation, striking first and controlling the initiative was a far better defense than was holding up one’s shield to stay on the defensive no matter what.
In other words, he needed to reach both the peaks of defense and offense if he wanted to possess the ultimate defense.
And Arhad, who was in pursuit of the ultimate defense, had been frantically training his ultimate destructive techniques from behind his shield while Ianna had been asleep. So that he would be capable of incapacitating any enemy that charged at him single-mindedly and overturn the flow of battle in just one blow.
His sword, which Ianna had so envied and begrudged in their past lives.
His sword, which Ianna was so impatient to defeat even after they had been reborn.
The space around Arhad’s blade warped and crumpled without a sound. Space itself was pulled in toward his sword as the weight of the world was carried into it.
Roarrrrr…….
The earth trembled like it was about to shatter.
‘Come.’
Mana drew in and compressed when its true master called. And it wasn’t only the mana —the divine power of nature and the dark divine power that the Knights of Pakalatua wielded was also pulled into its mighty flow. Even time itself was forced to slow, unable to resist the gravitational pull.
And a chain of events took place before the blink of an eye.
Arhad slowly drew his sword in an arc.
Crackle…….
The forceful aura that erupted from his sword rushed forward like a tidal wave.
Pakalatua tried to defend, having realized that a powerful foe had appeared, but it was already too late.
Boom boom boom!
They didn’t even have the time to scream. Over half of them were swept away and left strewn along the ground. And they did not stand again.
“Cough!”
“Kgh!”
A few of them just barely managed to defend themselves, but they did not emerge unscathed. The dark red blood they vomited moistened the earth.
A series of ferocious attacks fell upon them like the winter winds before they ever had the chance to regain their bearings.
Boom! Booom! Pow!
Arhad one-sidedly crushed and shredded apart his enemies. His attacks weren’t anything flashy, but each and every one of them was heavy and destructive. The Knights of Pakalatua, who had already been rendered unable to fight because of the initial surprise attack, were sent flying all over the place.
It didn’t take Arhad very long to wipe out the Knights of Pakalatua now that he was acting decisively.
Clank!
Arhad stowed away his bloodied sword.
“…….”
“…….”
The Revolution Army, which had stopped their flight, were watching in a daze from afar. They had been watching Arhad’s battle from beginning to end. Though, truth be told, there hadn’t even been much to watch. Everything had already been over after just a few booms.
His sculpted figure and cleanly emotionless visage were burned into their minds.
Arhad left for his next destination before they even had the chance to return to their senses.
Booom! Boom!
The same thing happened at his second destination.
In the past, Arhad had been called the Ruler of the Battlefield because he had single-handedly managed to disturb battlefield after battlefield. He had been laying low thanks to Ianna in this life, but his cruel and chaotic nature had never disappeared.
He had simply never had the chance to demonstrate the full extent of his skills yet because he was being wary of the Bahamut imperial family. And he had been forced to keep quiet, even as his enemies derided him for it, because he’d had to defend Ex-knights alone in Ianna’s absence.
His once-suppressed roar was exploding out of him now that Ianna was back and Ex-knights was stable.
Pow!
He brandished his greatsword and beheaded an enemy. And he bisected another as he brought his sword down.
He stabbed through stomachs like he was harpooning for fish, he mowed down the legs that supported his foes on top of the earth, and he ripped out the arms that tried to defy him with weapon in hand.
He shredded through solid muscle, crushed bone, and burst open hearts.
No one present was capable of blocking his path.
Arhad didn’t even allow the Knights of Pakalatua to send a signal to their company. He immediately destroyed the arrangement of mana and interrupted their calls whenever anyone tried to cast magic.
This repeated in the third, fourth, and fifth battlefields as well.
Each successive battle ended with Arhad’s overwhelming victory. He was not merciful in the slightest. Pakalatua was an enemy that could never be rehabilitated. They would only be a weapon that slaughtered his allies if he let them be. So he had to kill them while he still had the chance.
“Who is it?”
It hadn’t even been a day since the main forces of the Knights of Pakalatua realized that someone was wiping them out. Over ten platoons had failed to report back at the regular time already. And if they weren’t reporting back, then it meant that they were dead.
It was only after several days, and tremendous losses, they that finally realized their assailant’s identity.
“It was the king of Ex-knights.”
Only the Bahamut imperial family was capable of standing against him.
Pakalatua themselves knew best that they were strong, but they also acknowledged the fact that they could not even reach the feet of such absolute beings.
Pakalatua was a tool. A tool that cleared away the small fry so nothing could interfere with their masters’ important fight.
And so, they immediately reached out to one of their masters who had been staying near Ex-knights’ border.
“The king of Ex-knights has breached Bahamut’s borders, Your Imperial Majesty the Empress.”
~~*~~
A few days had passed after Arhad had entered the battlefields.
“Kgh!”
He did not give the Knights of Pakalatua even the time to scream. He also didn’t simply stand idle and allow them to report up to their superiors.
Thus, rumors that the king of Ex-knights had personally entered the fray spread quickly amongst the Revolution Army.
Thwack!
A knight of Pakalatua stepped over his fallen colleague’s broken body as he rushed toward Arhad.
Tang! Craaack!
Arhad parried the blow without much difficulty and broke the knight. There was no conversation to be heard. The only sound to be heard was the destructive noises of repeated death.
The Knights of Pakalatua continued to drop dead like flies, but they still continued to cling to Arhad like evil spirits from hell. They even managed to scratch Arhad every now and again. But that was all.
“Huh…….”
The Revolution Army watched blankly as the king of Ex-knights, whom they had only heard about in rumors until then, one-sidedly crushed the terrifying Knights of Pakalatua underfoot.
Pow!
Arhad’s expression was perfectly composed even as he took a life with every blow. His bland expression, so at odds with the awe-striking and godly feats he demonstrated, only served to make him scarier.
The battle ended unilaterally once again.
Arhad left the scene without a word like he always did.
‘Why?’
The Revolution Army was anxious.
‘Why is the king of Ex-knights personally helping us?’
It was already commonly known that Ex-knights was supporting the Revolution Army. But that simply meant that Ex-knights was sending reinforcements —so why had Arhad, Ex-knights’ king who was supposed to be defending his kingdom, personally stepped forward?
Ex-knights’ support had been subtle until recently so it wouldn’t stand out too much. So the Revolution Army grew anxious now that the king himself had stepped up out of nowhere and was actively mowing down the terrifying Knights of Pakalatua.
“Ex-knights isn’t planning to use us just to take all of Bahamut’s land for themselves, are they?”
The nervous questions had only been increasing when Root Dorian, the leader of the Revolution Army, announced that Louise, who wasn’t able to move on her own, had personally asked the king of Ex-knights for his support.
“Lady Louise……. I see.”
The Revolution Army’s anxieties subsided as soon as Louise’s name was mentioned.
Rather, it was the soldiers of Ex-knights, who were supporting the Revolution Army, who couldn’t settle down.
“What if the imperial family attacks the mainland while His Majesty is here?”
“He’s been working hard to establish the defense system until now, so maybe he’s finally able to leave the castle again?”
Arhad did not respond to their concerns. His simply continued breaking apart the Knights of Pakalatua like a machine.
The Knights of Pakalatua began acting very strangely once they had finally managed to identify Arhad.
Pakalatua stopped going around suppressing the Revolution Army and instead scattered about and wandered around in groups. It was almost like they were simply bait that were released to catch a large fish.
Arhad devoured the bait to his heart’s content. He toyed with any Knights of Pakalatua he encountered and simply watched as they reported back to their main forces. Then, once the atmosphere became unstable a little while later, he slaughtered them all and vanished away. It was almost like he was intentionally messing with someone.
And then, the situation suddenly changed yet again one day.
[An unidentified being is going around massacring the Revolution Army, Arhad. We cannot confirm their identity because the spies in the area went silent, perhaps because they got caught up in the fighting.]
Arhad answered Eiji’s report with only a brief reply.
“It’s Isabella Bahamut.”
Arhad had long since noticed Isabella’s aura from the unstable atmosphere.
Isabella was trying to catch him by using the Knights of Pakalatua as bait. But Arhad could feel the signs of Teleport and had always left the scene before Isabella could arrive. In other words, he was intentionally provoking the fisherwoman who was working so hard to meet him.
And now she was countering by violently slaughtering the Revolution Army, like how Arhad was breaking the Knights of Pakalatua, perhaps because she was infuriated.
It looked like she was going around killing the Revolution Army because there was nothing she could do to the royal castle of Ex-knights, but that suited Arhad perfectly fine. After all, the Revolution Army was comprised of Bahamut’s citizen, not Ex-knights’. And from Isabella’s standpoint, she was accomplishing little more than weakening her own forces.
Perhaps she had realized this too, as she didn’t continue her antics for long.
Then, Pakalatua whisked away like the ebbing tide, and Arhad received word that they had hidden themselves from the Revolution Army’s encampments altogether.
“Wow!”
Arhad learned from Eiji that the Knights of Pakalatua had grouped together in a wasteland while the Revolution Army cheered. It wasn’t difficult for him to assume that Isabella was waiting there as well.
‘It’s an invitation.’
The time had come.
Arhad finally made his way over to where Isabella was waiting.
But there was always the possibility that it was a trap, of course, so he didn’t meet her immediately.
He stood atop a large rocky mountain in the distance and observed as the black hyenas swarmed about the wastelands. The Knights of Pakalatua, whom he had been killing to the point that he was growing sick and tired of it, was blazing in their fighting spirit as they stood in their lines.
‘There’s still so many of them left.’
He’d thought that he had killed at least half of them, but there were still nearly double the number of knights than he had killed standing there —perhaps they had doubled their numbers in the meanwhile.
‘I’d rather not get surrounded.’
Pakalatua’s true strength was that the entire knight order moved as one body. They were much more powerful when they were acting in concert than when they were separated into squads and platoons.
Even Arhad acknowledged Pakalatua’s group tactics. Eliminating them had been easy until now because they had been divided and scattered, but things would get irksome if they were all grouped together like this.
‘And Isabella’s here too.’
Arhad sensed that there was a powerful enemy standing at the heart of the Pakalatua’s formation —Isabella. She exuded an evil yet dignified aura as she openly made her presence known.
Arhad’s skin began to prickle and sting when he drew nearer.
He furrowed his brows as he read the air currents.
It was beyond what he had imagined. He had assumed, to some extent, after hearing about it from Ianna and Eiji, but Isabella was still far more powerful than he had anticipated.
‘Were the four dragons that strong? Or was there some kind of synergistic effect because all four of their powers were combined together?’
And yet, Isabella was that powerful when she was only sharing Taylon’s power?
Something felt off.
‘Something’s strange. There’s something odd about Isabella too.’
Everyone’s soul had its own unique color that distinguished them from others. In the past, Isabella had felt like a gigantic black snake, and her presence had been distinct. But her presence was murky now, like mud water with a bunch of other things mixed into it.
‘I feel like there’s something else there besides the dragons…….’
Arhad’s instincts were generally correct.
Booooom!
A heinous aura shot up toward the sky from the center of the Knights of Pakalatua’s formation like it meant to pierce the heavens before Arhad could finish his thought. Isabella had sensed Arhad’s presence and was inviting him over.
Arhad scowled at his surroundings. He wasn’t the only one here. Elite troops from the Revolution Army had come to scout out the situation.
‘To think that they’d still come out to scout even after all the losses they’ve suffered at Pakalatua’s hands —they’ve sure got guts.’
Arhad could feel the familiar presences of elite soldiers from Ex-knights thrown into the mix too. They were probably here to observe Arhad’s battle against Pakalatua instead, considering that Eiji had ordered them not to go scouting.
It was said that curiosity killed the cat. Arhad hoped that they would survive without getting swept into the fighting.
Boooom!
The mountain that the Revolution Army had been hiding in exploded with a roar. It was a warning from Isabella.
‘Is she telling me to hurry up and come out already?’
It was certainly true that he couldn’t make any precise determinations if he did nothing but stare at her. A chilling light, like the light of the moon cast over a frozen lake, fell upon the earth.
‘I’ll not decline.’
Arhad raised his sword up high from where he was and swung it down.
A single blow so powerful it could have split the continent in two fell upon the center of the Knight of Pakalatua’s formation.
Booom!
It collided. The attack, which should have slaughtered at least a few dozens, was flung aside by a power that was no weaker than it and shattered a different mountain.
‘She parried it —as I expected.’
He had already anticipated that Isabella would parry his blow. He had simply intended use the attack to gauge Isabella’s strength one more time.
Thump!
Arhad jumped down from the mountain and slowly began walking.
Clank, clank.
The sounds of the knights’ armor beating against each other rippled from the center of their formation. The Knights of Pakalatua were moving to the side. They separated like a splitting sea as they created a pathway.
Isabella, whose visage was ashen, walked down the path they made.
“That was quite the greeting.”
She slowly licked her wounded hand as she stared Arhad in the eyes. It was a rather deep wound, but she was grinning like it didn’t hurt at all. She continued,
“This is our first time meeting alone like this, isn’t it? How’ve you been, my damnable little brother?”
Arhad scrutinized Isabella from head to toe in the lieu of a reply. Her skin was pallid, but it wasn’t due to any external shock. Which meant that it had to be something else inside her…….
“Rude, aren’t you? How dare you stare at your dearest elder sister with such dirty eyes without giving me a proper reply?”
Arhad continued to ignore and observe Isabella, and she was also studying Arhad too as she spoke.
“Are you that happy that Dame Rise is awake?”
Isabella brought her hand, which had cleanly recovered in the meanwhile, up to her face and quietly continued,
“The misery’s been wiped clean off your face. Dame Rise must not only be perfectly fine but also a whole lot stronger, seeing how you’ve abandoned Ex-knights to take care of things in Bahamut.”
Isabella moistened her lips as she studied Arhad. His face, which had been gaunt and withering away a few months back, was now brimming with vim and vigor. He was like a withering plant who had recently been given water.
“I’m sure you’ve already anticipated it.”
Arhad didn’t deny her claims.
“I knew it. It was a good call for me not to infiltrate your castle and only loiter outside. Dame Rise is a bit scary, to be honest.”
Isabella placed a hand at her waist and sighed. She continued,
“Was it Dame Rise who killed Mother?”
“Ianna didn’t lay a finger on her. She was killed by my other subordinates,”
Arhad answered honestly.
“Lies.”
“Do you really think so?”
Isabella’s features contorted.
Crunch!
Their opposing air currents crashed into each other. Space screamed as it was forcefully twisted.
“It’s all your fault, you bastard.”
Isabella looked ferocious as she shed off a layer of composure. She continued,
“Everything went wrong because of you. Why did you have to be born in our generation? Everything was going so smoothly until now, even if things got a little annoying from time to time.”
“I suppose the gods just didn’t want things to go your way.”
This was what Arhad genuinely believed.
He did not think that it had been simple coincidence that his mother had found herself near a rift into Pandemonium after stealing Bahamut’s seed. At this point, Arhad believed that it was either Kandemayon or Laos who had guided her there.
“You think it was the gods? Do you think that the gods looked into their own future or something? Hohohoho.”
Isabella cackled as she said something undecipherable.
Arhad could have simply ignored what she’d said as nonsense, but he was diligent and made sure to memorize every last word. Each and every word was another piece of information, after all.
“Taylon must be nearby, seeing how confident you are.”
“Who could say? But you can bet that he’ll be here immediately if I’m in danger. Just like how Dame Rise might show up if you’re in a pinch too.”
It was only because both Arhad and Isabella had terrifyingly strong allies backing them that they could carry on a normal conversation like this. Isabella continued,
“Anyway, how about we engage in some honest and open conversation now?”
But there was no way that they could possibly carry out an honest and open conversation with each other, of all people, especially when the situation was like a tinderbox that could explode at any given moment.
“With our bodies, of course!”
Isabella brandished the whip sword that she had pulled out at some point.
Craaaack!
The earth caved in where Arhad had been standing. Sharp, whip-like scars were left on the earth like the fins of a swarm of sharks slicing through the ocean stretched out behind him.
Isabella closed in on Arhad’s flank as he moved quickly.
Crash!
Arhad held his sword upright and parried Isabella’s sword with his blade as it rushed toward his side, but the bone of her sword, so like a dragon’s spine, circled around his sword and closed in again. Arhad changed the angle of his sword ever so slightly and flung Isabella’s blade away.
Craash! Crash! Crack!
The arc drawn by Isabella’s whip sword flowed through the air like a ribbon in the wind as she swung it, but her each and every attack was as perilous as that of an upright and angry venomous viper’s.
Arhad took up a defensive stance, unlike when he was butchering Pakalatua, as he continued to gauge Isabella’s strength. He analyzed Isabella’s attacks like he was dissecting them with all sorts of spells and divine arts.
Crack!
Arhad seized upon an opening and slammed his sword down against Isabella’s arm. There had been enough power behind his blow to break her body in two, but there was a sound like steel was clashing against steel and Isabella came out unscathed.
Isabella’s arm had completely absorbed the shockwave that should have resulted. Arhad’s eyes glistened as he quickly scanned Isabella’s arm. There were black scales protruding out from her bare flesh. The scales looked familiar, but they felt anything but.
‘The Demon, Bahamut, and the dragons. The three auras are mixed into each other. And…….’
There was also something there that he couldn’t quite identify.
It was sizzling chaotically, as if things that should never come together had been forced to fuse. It was like an unsophisticated castle that had been made by simply piling up a bunch of sand together.
Arhad pondered about what the source of that power could be.
“You never change. You’re only ever defending —and it’s annoying!”
Isabella yelled sharply before she executed attack upon attack like a meteor shower. The Knights of Pakalatua, who were getting in Arhad’s way, matched Isabella’s tempo as they began assertively attacking too.
Tang!
Arhad’s brow chapped ever so slightly as their swords collided. Something about Isabella’s attacks felt oddly heavy.
Taaang! Tang!
He felt like he was slashing away at the water inside the deep sea. The seawater grabbed hold of his sword and refused to let go.
There was an incredible absorption coming from Isabella’s entire being. Even the divine power that Arhad had wrapped around his sword was being sucked into her, which was nothing to say about the divine power of nature. It wasn’t stolen from him completely, but it was enough to sour his mood.
Arhad felt something familiar about how Isabella was absorbing divine power.
‘I feel like I’m looking at my past self.’
It wasn’t simple greed. She was craving for it because she truly needed it. Her attacks lacked precision, even after accounting for the unique characteristics of a whip sword. She was like a young child who still hadn’t acclimated to the great power she had recently obtained.
‘I knew it —it wasn’t only the dragons.’
But then, what else was it?
Did there exist anything in this world that was greater than even the dragons?
There did exist another dimension beyond this one.
The library that contained every record in the world, the cradle in which all souls were born and extinguished, the Creator who had shaped the world —the Akashic Records, where all these things existed.
‘It’s possible that Taylon’s able to go to the Akashic Records now that he’s absorbed the dragons, who are basically pieces of Laos and Kandemayon. If he absorbed something inside the Akashic Records too…….’
The sizzling feeling he was getting from Isabella, like grains of sand…
‘Did he devour the souls inside the Akashic Records?’
It was highly likely.
And the way that Isabella had referenced the gods’ future with such contempt…
Arhad had originally thought that she had merely expressed their plans to kill the gods, but Taylon might have already done something to them if he had made his way to the Akashic Records…….
‘Is that bastard Taylon watching over our fight from there?’
You could see and immediately go to anywhere in the world from the Akashic Records because the Akashic Records were connected to the entire world.
‘I’m certain he is.’
All of Arhad’s instincts were pointing to the Akashic Records.
Arhad stopped in place.
He had uncovered everything that he could uncover on his own. It would be a waste of time to keep dealing with Isabella like this.
‘Ianna,’
He called to Ianna quietly. The ring he was wearing on the ring finger of his left hand rippled.
And, just as the ripple, as frail and subtle as a feather, reached out and touched Isabella.
Isabella experienced a terrifying sensation like her heart was being ripped to shreds right there and then. Nothing had even happened yet, but the sensation was so vivid that Isabella’s instincts forced her to move. Isabella hurled her body to the side and rolled away.
Craaaash!
Her frame tumbled into the ground.
“Kgh.”
Isabella groaned as she grasped her chest. She had managed to keep the blow from reaching her heart, but there was a gaping hole in the right side of her chest that was bleeding profusely.
Driip.
She was bleeding from the neck too. Isabella felt around her throbbing body. She had been decapitated halfway. It had truly happened in but an instant.
Isabella sensed the oncoming danger and tried to use her malleable flesh to seal her wounds, but then a blade appeared out of nowhere from behind and drove itself into her shoulder.
Booooom!
But the sword was flung away just before she could die a senseless death. The resulting explosion was like two explosives colliding at once as it blasted around Isabella’s ears. Isabella brought her hands to her ears —her eardrums had ruptured— and turned around. But nothing was there.
Boom! Baboom! Craaack!
She could sense that hazy figures were colliding against each other over the earth, on the mountains, in the sky……. Space didn’t seem to matter to them.
Superheated air melted its surroundings as it exploded, and the erupting flames followed the shockwaves and created a path. Blackish water dripped down into the earth, a straight and powerful force created a crevasse as it tore apart the ground, and the fragments of power that broke off in the clash flew everywhere and created craters where they landed.
Two incompatible forces tangled together and tried to rob each other of their lives as they moved at speeds too fast for the eyes too see. The thunderous roars that resulted from their clashing fell to the ground like a squall and dyed the world in sound.
The world was covered in white dust.
A colossal bolt of lightning flashed inside the dusty winds.
Boooom!
The power that had coalesced together ripped apart with a giant roar.
Riiiip.
The first person who became visible was Taylon, who was wrapped around a hot and powerful aura like the flames of the sun.
He had been pushed back by two meters even though he had planted himself firmly into the ground and had braced himself. Black smoke was rising from the long scars he had carved into the earth. The earth had melted, and its murkiness was tinged with crimson.
The high-pressured and high-heat aura that had reduced the cold and hard earth into magma had swallowed Taylon whole and was blazing as it tried to burn him alive.
“Hwooo…….”
Taylon exhaled deeply and mustered up every last drop of strength he had in his body. Then, a pitch black cloud seeped out from his being and pushed away the flames.
Taylon was a bloodied mess of stab wounds when he emerged.
Similarly, was his opponent, who was covered in a persistent and swampy aura.
A clean blade stuck out from the swamp.
Swiiish!
The muddy aura immediately evaporated before the firm and brilliant blade. It was Ianna.
Her crimson hair was fluttering, and her shoulder was frayed. Ianna looked disgusted and nauseated.
Ianna and Taylon took a brief moment to gather their breaths before they immediately went for round two.
Craaaash!
They clashed over and over again, and the resulting roars sounded like they meant to shatter the heavens and the earth. Spacetime itself distorted as two forces, each strong enough to dominate the world, pitted against each other directly without either side being pushed back. Space waned, billowed, and opened up. Time speed up, slowed, or even stopped entirely.
No one could dare step inside their disordered mess of a world. They would be torn to shreds by the aftermath of the fighting if they tried.
Even the Knights of Pakalatua stayed far away and only watched, mesmerized, as the two monsters fought, which was nothing to say of the Revolution Army.
And even Isabella was stunned as she restored her body.
‘My lord brother gained power from that place called the Akashic Records.’
Isabella had gone around suppressing the Revolution Army with Pakalatua after Shailince’s death, but Taylon had vanished without another word.
He had returned once, though he had been a bloody mess. But he had grown so, so much stronger that his wounds hardly mattered at all. He hadn’t even been away for that long, but Taylon had grown so much stronger that Isabella barely recognized him.
He was displaying such powerful might that Isabella, his own sister, huddled in place and didn’t dare to budge. She felt like she might get sucked in.
Taylon had disclosed to her that he had been in this great place called the Akashic Records and that he had obtained a new power from there. He had also told her to approach Ianna and try to gauge her strength because he would be watching over her from the Akashic Records.
Then, Taylon had returned to the Akashic Records to finish absorbing the power he had found there.
The power he acquired was shared with Isabella, and Isabella was filled to the brim with so much power every day that made her so elated that she could barely withstand it.
The Akashic Records.
Isabella had never seen the Akashic Records for herself, but she recognized that it was a great place filled with infinite power and that it was the origin of the world.
She also knew better than any other that the power Taylon had found there was great indeed because she was intimately connected to him.
And yet…
‘My lord brother has grown that much stronger…….’
Isabella’s eyes urgently chased after his figure.
‘But he still might be getting pushed back.’
In that brief lull just earlier. The stronger of the two opponents had already been determined.
Isabella broke out in goosebumps. Her hairs were standing at edge.
A terror, the likes of which she had never experienced before, was spreading all throughout her being.
‘What the hell did you do, Ianna Ex-knights Rise?’
Had she not been in a normal coma? Had she been wielding her sword even in her sleep like she was sleepwalking or something?
Isabella recalled the moment from earlier when she’d nearly died without being any wiser to her imminent demise. She would have died on the spot had Taylon come any later.
She could still so vividly recall how Ianna had turned the back and fled the first time they had fought, but now Isabella was in no position to even gaze at Ianna’s back.
‘How terrifying. You…….’
All of Isabella’s terror flowed away like the ebbing tide and a dreadful hunger rose up the very moment she acknowledged that the knight who was battling her older brother before her very eyes was superior to all and she acknowledged her own terror.
Isabella gulped.
‘I want you even more now.’
Isabella was being ravaged by two different impulses.
Her affection for Ianna was boiling. Her desire to turn Ianna into a bloody mess and possess her rushed into her heart like a deluge.
This emotion belonged to the ancient Demon.
She also wanted to devour Ianna whole, from head to toe. She wanted to swallow Ianna’s heart and soul and evolve yet again after drinking of Ianna’s blinding life.
This instinct belonged to Bahamut.
Isabella was at a loss for a bit, but she was ultimately won over by the blood of Bahamut, which ran deeply in her veins, rather than the Demon’s fragment, which she was only sharing.
She would have considered Ianna as nothing more than a pretty and cheeky toy, like she had always done, if Ianna was still weak……but her entire being was writhing in the desire to devour Ianna and absorb her power into their bloodline now that she realized that Ianna might actually be stronger than Taylon.
She was inundated by Bahamut’s instincts, which flowed through her veins. The inferiority complex that was the foundation of Bahamut, which Isabella hadn’t even known existed, quietly crawled up inside her.
‘How can we eat her? Will my Lord Brother be able to devour her?’
Back when Bahamut had still been very weak, he had used every means at his disposal and had endured the wretched humiliation as long as it meant that he could evolve to be strong enough to devour that which was stronger than he.
Perhaps it was because Isabella was of Bahamut’s lineage. She was seething in a hunger that told her to do anything and everything she possibly could to devour Ianna. She felt like the hunger would finally sate if she somehow managed to eat Ianna.
But just as Isabella was fully engrossed in Ianna.
A chill ran up from the bottom of her soles all the way to her throat in but an instant.
Pooow!
Someone had stabbed her directly through the back, and now she was keeling over.
“Kgh.”
She narrowly managed to avoid having her heart pieced clean through thanks to her instantaneous premonition, just like how she had managed to avoid being killed by Ianna earlier. But she was staring at death’s door now.
Isabella’s eyes met Arhad’s when she turned around.
He had been waiting as he defended the Revolution Army from the aftermath of Ianna and Taylon’s battle, and he hadn’t missed his chance when Isabella let down her guard.
Creeeeack!
Arhad tore through Isabella’s shoulder and pushed his sword deeper inside with everything he had.
“Kghh.”
The muscles in Isabella’s back and around her heart solidified, and her flesh and bones moved as she desperately tried to stay the blade.
‘I let my guard down like a fool…….’
Isabella poured every last drop of strength she had to protect her heart and get away, but it was of no use. The sword stuck in her chest refused to let her go.
‘Why is my recovery so slow?’
The wounds that Ianna had given her hadn’t healed yet. Normally, they would have healed immediately, so why was it taking so long? Her body broke apart again even after she restored it. And the wounds only festered as time passed and continued to rob Isabella of more and more strength.
Isabella was sweating buckets as she flailed against the ground, but she could feel herself growing weaker. Her vision was starting to go white.
Two explosives, who were battling so hard that the world itself might crumble before them, fell toward where Arhad and Isabella were just then. Arhad clicked his tongue as he was forced to dodge.
Slaaaash!
Ianna’s sword dug across Taylon’s back as he ran over to Isabella and picked her up. Flesh and bone burst out from the wound as he back was gouged.
But just as Ianna was about to put an end to things.
Taylon flung his body into a rift he had created using the dragons’ powers. He closed the rift before Ianna’s sword could catch up to him, and the Bahamut siblings entered into a completely different space.
Taylon turned to the opening he had just come through. It was closed, but Ianna’s sword was jutting out from it.
Normally, no human being other than Taylon could possibly open that doorway back up, but things were different if Ianna was involved. She would break open space itself and made her way inside shortly.
But he had bought them a little time.
“Aha.”
Isabella realized that they were inside the so-called Akashic Records as she lay in Taylon’s arms.
“It’s……a complete mess…….”
The origin of the world. The source of the great Truth was in such an unsightly tattered mess that it brought shame to its name. Isabella didn’t know what it had looked like originally, but she was certain that it had not been the mess that it was now.
She pressed her face against Taylon’s, who had made a mess of even the Truth itself, shoulder.
“Where do you suppose is our ending, Lord Brother?”
Bahamut’s goal had always ever been to climb up to the very peak of strength.
They had no goals other than to grow stronger. They were monsters of greed who knew neither moderation nor how to stop themselves.
They had been able to keep running all this time because they hadn’t been able to see their ending. But they were slowly starting to see it now.
And it made Isabella curious.
What do we do after we’ve become the strongest? What happens to us when no one’s above us anymore? Will there ever come a day when the hunger is gone for good and we only feel satiated?
“We can think about once we get there. We’ll be able to do anything then, after all.”
They would reach the seat of the strongest, which felt so close that they could almost reach out and touch it now, first before they thought about anything else. Taylon continued,
“But Ianna Ex-knights Rise is a variable. She’s really strong.”
“You’re right. This might be difficult. Then, what do you propose we do?”
“Until we’ve become the strongest…….”
As he continued to hold Isabella up, Taylon continued,
“Give me everything that you are. I’ll give you back after we’ve won.”
“What about the empire?”
Isabella asked as if she couldn’t care any less. She continued,
“We still have to manage the army until everything’s over. Wouldn’t that be easier with two bodies instead of one?”
“I don’t care about the foolish humans. I’ve found a way to procure new soldiers who are obedient.”
Isabella cackled wickedly.
“Okay. But promise me……. Promise me that you’ll eat Ianna Ex-knights Rise without fail.”
“But of course. Watch everything through my body until I do.”
“I will.”
Isabella wrapped her arms around Taylon’s neck. She continued,
“I leave everything to you, Lord Brother.”
Taylon placed his hand over Isabella’s back.
Pow.
His left hand dug into the wound that Arhad had left here. He quickly moved his hand toward her chest and took hold of her madly beating heart. His hand and her heart fused together. Isabella’s visage flushed with fever.
“Ah…….”
The very foundation of her existence began flowing away.
Deeper, deeper, and deeper into an unfathomable darkness.
Isabella didn’t resist, and her heart melted and her soul flowed into the hand that was connected to her.
Pshhhh.
Isabella’s body crumbled to dust.
And it was in that very moment that the Bahamut lineage finally became one body.
“Hwoo…….”
Taylon placed his hand over his heart as he breathed out a long and heated sigh.
His entire soul was filling up.
Isabella was his perfect other half and blood relative who had great synergy with him. Taylon swallowed her whole because she didn’t resist, and she completed him like two smugly fitting pieces of a puzzle.
But Isabella’s role did not end there.
Isabella was not dead. Her heart had been connected to Taylon’s, but it hadn’t been destroyed, and her soul had entered into the prison that was Taylon’s soul, but it hadn’t gone extinct.
She crushed and suppressed all the things that Taylon had indiscriminately devoured from within the prison of his soul. She ruled over the hell of souls, the pandemonic Abaddon, with fear and restored it to order.
Taylon felt his insides finally settling down thanks to Isabella’s efforts.
He took another breath before he turned back toward the chilling blade that was still piercing through the gap between dimensions.
Crackle, crackle.
The blade was emitting a disgustingly bright light as it pulsated.
Ianna could have retrieved her sword easily if she pulled it from the dimension of progress. The fact that it was still here and jolting furiously was proof that Ianna was trying to rip apart the gap between dimensions. She meant to chase Taylon down until the bitter end.
‘How persistent.’
He had been wise to choose to keep searching for ways to grow stronger even after he had left Ianna half for dead last year. He would’ve been slain by Ianna’s sword had he allowed himself to be even a little lazy and had been even slightly weaker than he was now.
“…….”
Taylon groped his aching back. The large gash that Ianna had given him wasn’t recovering well. The wound only reopened whenever he tried to glue his flesh back together with mana. This was the same reason why Isabella had also been left on the verge of dying.
But…
Cruuuunch.
All sorts of things began swarming around the large gash on Taylon’s back. Flesh, muscle, bone, and blood vessels shot up, settled back down, broke apart, and exploded in repeat for some time before his wound finally disappeared.
Taylon looked at the sword that was jutting out toward him once more. It had sunk in even deeper now, and the gap had also widened. Ianna would be here soon if he gave her a little more time.
‘But I mustn’t let that happen.’
He could not allow her inside this place just yet.
‘I’m not done eating. And I haven’t finished digesting either.’
Taylon leisurely surveyed the Akashic Records, which he had wreaked havoc upon.
He’d come back soon to wrap things up.
‘But…….’
There was just one thing that he keenly took note of.
Something that should have been here, was not.
‘I made sure to send notice beforehand, but that’s too bad.’
Still, it didn’t matter. Taylon could catch and devour anything he wanted to now.
Taylon licked his chops as he rolled his stiff shoulders.
Crunch, cruuunch.
His solid muscles locked against each other as he prepared to do battle. He calculated his coordinates and promptly ripped open another rift between dimensions as he stepped back into the world to fight.
“……!”
He reappeared behind Ianna’s back. Ianna’s reaction was slightly delayed because Rise was still stuck between dimensions and because Taylon had reappeared without any warning.
Baaaang!
Pow!
Ianna dodged by turning around, but Taylon still managed to rip out a chunk of flesh from her side.
She was fortunate that Arhad had been standing next to her and had immediately parried Taylon’s attack and thrown it off course because she could have been slice in half otherwise.
Ianna grit her teeth and held back a groan as she clutched her side, to which Taylon’s black aura was clinging like leeches. She needed to summon the spirits to treat her wound immediately, but Taylon refused to give her the chance.
Taylon created hundreds of black lances with a wave of his hand.
Boom! Boooom!
The lances hurled themselves at Ianna and Arhad when Taylon flicked his fingers. The spirits weren’t able to be summoned inside the prison of his making.
Ianna quickly grasped the situation and drew Rise from the gap between dimensions as she decided to forgo healing in favor of attacking.
Her sword ignored the innumerable lances showering down upon her as it raced toward Taylon.
Craaackle!
Arhad supported her from behind. He crushed the lances that were pointed at her and shattered the lances in her path so she could concentrate solely on her attack.
Ianna drew Rise in a diagonal arc. It was a basic attack, but it was also a sharp attack that was filled with the essence of the peak that Ianna had reached.
Her attack reached Taylon completely unhindered thanks to Arhad.
Pachang!
Taylon beat back against Ianna’s attack using a black lance that he was holding, but it was the lance that broke to pieces. Ianna approached Taylon, who was left defenseless with his arms spread open, in no time at all even though she was bleeding profusely from her side. Taylon scowled.
Rise arced through the air once more.
Splatter!
Dark red blood erupted from Taylon’s arms, which he had thrown up to protect himself, and his exposed chest as his arms shattered.
“K-kghhhh.”
But Taylon didn’t die. He moved back as far as he could while still scowling heavily.
“Incredible. I’ve eaten so much, and I still can’t catch you. What the hell have you been doing all this time? You’ve grown too strong. It’s also rather cowardly of you to face me two-on-one.”
Ianna continued to focus on attacking instead of bothering to reply. Taylon only just managed to dodge Ianna’s close-quarters attacks by the skin of his teeth.
“Hwoo, haah.”
Ianna was pallid, and she could taste blood in her ragged breaths. But their standoff itself was no different from before Taylon had fled to the Akashic Records. Ianna was at the advantage because Arhad was backing her up.
“Why don’t we both retreat for now?”
“Shut up.”
The plan had initially only been to do light battle in order to see how powerful Taylon was, but Ianna had learned that she was clearly the stronger of the two, and she refused to let this thousand-gold opportunity to slip through her fingers when she knew she was capable of putting an end to Taylon once and for all.
She struck, blocked, sundered, withdrew, stabbed, and beat back.
They clashed hundreds of times in the blink of an eye.
Ianna was growing weaker by the second, but the blood was draining from Taylon’s face too. He looked down at the wounds all over his body that were beginning to change color.
“I’m not healing properly. Did you teach yourself some special new technique since the last we met, o great and fearsome Dame Rise?”
He vomited crimson blood, a stark color against his pallid face, as he smiled derisively.
“You don’t need to know!”
Ianna continued to pour out attack after attack upon Taylon as he complained and stuck close to him. Taylon tried to escape by drawing backward.
Ting.
Just then, there was a high-pitched thrill as if an instrument had sounded and Taylon was locked in place as if something was holding him there.
Arhad had been preparing a meticulous trap even as he supported Ianna while Taylon was focusing on his battle against her. And Taylon had finally been caught in the sturdy spiderweb of Arhad’s spells.
Pooow!
Ianna’s sword penetrated directly through the left side of Taylon’s chest.
‘What the hell?’
But Ianna wasn’t cheering.
Her sword should have pierced cleaning through Taylon’s chest because the chest muscles and ribs surrounding the human heart weren’t very thick.
But her blade hadn’t reached Taylon’s heart. It was only slicing through an endless sea of flesh and bone. She could not clear that sea no matter how hard she pushed and pushed.
A bone-chilling sensation that she couldn’t identify began to jolt her hands.
“I suppose I haven’t finished digesting everything just yet.”
Taylon was ‘something else’ beyond the boundaries of man or monster as he mumbled while standing directly in front of Ianna.
‘I need to kill him now.’
But just as the light in Ianna’s eyes sharpened and she mustered every last drop of strength she could squeeze from her body into her hands.
Taylon’s pupils flashed and something bizarre began spurting out from the wounds on his arms.
They were large arms belonging to a monster.
Pow!
Ianna quickly sliced away the arms that tried to grab hold of her. But even more hideous things burst out from the wounded monster. Dozens of lifeless human arms sprang forth and grabbed hold of Ianna’s arms and legs.
And something colossal sprang forth from Taylon’s chest just as the arms took hold of Ianna.
Craaaash!
Ianna’s body slammed into a rocky mountain that was far away. A crack ran down the hard cliff surface due to the sheer impact.
“Kgh.”
Ianna held her sword upright as she looked back at the dozens of gigantic teeth that had materialized before her.
……It was the head of a familiar dragon. Terranodin’s crimson head was biting down against Ianna and was trying to swallow her whole.
Clang!
The dragon’s head was flung away. Arhad had abandoned his efforts to hold Taylon in place and had beat back the dragon’s head instead.
They saw Taylon, who looked cleaned up again, vanishing away with the Knights of Pakalatua from afar behind the dragon’s head. Ianna instinctively opened up the astral plane to see his soul just before his vanished.
And she immediately grew nauseated.
‘What the hell is that?’
Taylon looked hideous in the world of souls.
His soul had a humanoid shape, but there was an entire world lurking inside of him.
Countless souls had been crammed inside of him like piles of garbage and were bawling. His wounds, in particular, were being forcefully filled by dozens of souls of all different colors.
Ianna closed her eyes for a moment because she’d grown dizzy and opened them again only a little while later.
Shaaaa…….
Taylon had vanished, and the dragon’s head and the disgusting arms that had been grabbing her evaporated into an aura of death that polluted the earth.
“…….”
Freed from her restraints, Ianna jumped down from the mountain and landed on the ground.
‘What was it that she had seen and felt just earlier?’
Ianna began to bleed from her side and her other wounds now that the battle was over. Arhad, who had been controlling his breathing while guarding Ianna from beside her looked like he was in even more pain than she was as he looked back at her regretfully.
“Stop think about other things and get yourself treated first. Shall I move us elsewhere?”
The land around them had been a wasteland to begin with, and the fierce battle had made it so unstable that it was no longer a suitable place to rest.
“That’s all right. Please track down Taylon’s aura instead.”
Ianna was pallid and collecting her breathing as she sat upright. She had given her everything in her battle against Taylon. She wanted to collapse on the spot and rest, but she had to organize the situation first.
Shaaaaaa!
Crimson divine power pushed the black divine power aside and summoned the spirits.
[Ack!]
The spirits screamed when they felt the aura of death filling the wastelands as soon as they were summoned.
[What is this? Ack! You got hurt again, Ianna.]
[That looks painful. Let’s hurry up and treat her.]
The spirits quivered as they tried to push themselves against Ianna’s wounds. But their pure bodies either dyed black and wilted or burnt as soon as they got close.
[Ughhh.]
Ianna realized that the black aura was still stuck to her side like leeches. It was so dense that it didn’t go extinct even when Kagomyne, the spirit king of fire, tried to burn it away.
Poow!
It was only after Ianna had poured her own divine power into her side and pushed away the aura of death that the spirits were able to melt into her body. Towe and Innis created clean new flesh and blood, while Kagomyne and Shweia created a purifying fire to erase Taylon’s aura.
A long time passed. Arhad, who had been tracking Taylon down using every method he knew, opened his eyes.
“His aura disappeared altogether. He’s not in this world right now.”
“If he’s somewhere he can’t be tracked, then…”
Ianna frowned when her injured side began hurting mid-sentence. Arhad looked grave as he began studying her wound.
“Why’s it taking so long?”
[So much of it was polluted…….]
[It would’ve been better if we healed you as soon as you got hurt.]
Ianna had paid the price for choosing to keep fighting while ignoring her wound. Not only had it festered, but Taylon’s poisonous aura had managed to pollute her internal organs too.
But she would still make a complete recovery if she worked on healing herself for a long time.
Ianna groaned as she stood up.
“Should I learn how to temporarily mold my own body before our next battle against Taylon?”
“The best-case scenario would be for you to not get hurt at all, but it wouldn’t be bad to learn how to do some emergency first aid. The drawback to this method is that the flesh you molded would go back in place and you’d feel the same pain as what you felt when you were wounded all over again as soon as you lose concentration, but other than that, it’s useful. But you’ll need to learn how to mold your body with divine power instead of mana.”
Presently, mana did not belong solely to Arhad. Taylon might use it against Ianna if she crafted a part of her body with mana. Arhad continued,
“But we’ll worry about that later —let’s talk about the situation for now. For starters, did you create a new technique? Neither Taylon nor Isabella were able to restore themselves by molding their bodies.”
Ianna nodded back seriously as she answered,
“Yes —Soul Rending.”
Arhad was able to grasp the gist of what Soul Rending was as soon as he heard the name.
The body and the soul were tightly bound together and interacted with each other. The body was heavily influenced by the condition of the soul, just like how the soul adhered to the shape of the body.
Physical strength was normally unable to cut the soul. The soul would remain unscathed even if the body was cut open, and it would ultimately restore the body back into its original form. Providence dictated, however, that the soul would transform into the body’s wounded shape if it took too long to heal.
And so, wounds would simply reappear on the body even if they were healed because Ianna could cut the soul itself. It would take a very, very long time for anyone to recover if Ianna Rent their soul.
And yet…….
“Taylon was able to recover immediately even after you Rent his soul.”
“Yes. And in a very bizarre manner too.”
Ianna recalled the series of event that had played out before her very eyes.
A monster’s arm had emerged from the wounds on Taylon’s arms, and when Ianna had Rent them, dozens of lifeless arms had burst out next. And then Terronodin’s head had suddenly burst out from the wound on his chest.
Ianna had seen a hellish prison for souls inside Taylon’s soul behind the obstacles. He had been able to restore his body by filling the wounds that Ianna had Rent unto his soul with other souls.
“I wonder where he devoured all those souls.”
“There’s only one possible answer.”
Then, at the same time, Ianna and Arhad said together,
“The Akashic Records.”
Ianna’s expression stiffened. She said,
“The dragons are a part of Laos and Kandemayon, so it’s entirely possible that he learned how to travel to the Akashic Records when he absorbed them. The gap between dimensions he created earlier led to the Akashic Records, and that’s where he probably is now.”
“What do you think? Do you think you can go there too?”
“It’s possible for me to open a door using my power, but the burden is too great for me as I am now. Please give me a few days. I’m currently at the level where I can Rend souls, and I think I’ll be able to open a path to the Akashic Records with my own strength after a little more training since I was able to experience it directly for a bit earlier.”
Ianna placed her hands at her waist and sighed deeply. Her eyes were frigid as she stared somewhere deep underground. Then, she asked,
“What do you think the bastard is trying to do with all those souls he’s swallowed?”
“There are a great many things he could do as long as he’s capable of withstanding their weight. He could even artificially create life if he wanted to.”
“Create life?”
“The elements that comprise living beings are a body, a heart, and a soul. It’s possible to create bodies and hearts. The only reason why creating life has always been regarded as the territory of the gods is because it’s impossible to create a man-made soul. But Taylon will be able to create life if he can force the souls he’s devoured into bodies and hearts of his creations.”
“…….”
“Any life that’s been born that way will start as blank states, just like any other newborn life. But Taylon will be able to turn them into living weapons of carnage if he pollutes them with his black aura and brainwashes them while they’re in that state.”
Ianna fell silent for a moment before she sighed yet again and resolutely said,
“I’ll have to train even harder.”
She was likely already pushing herself to the limit, so to think that she was about to push herself even harder. She continued,
“I’d like to visit the Akashic Records soon. I’m worried about Laos and Kandemayon. They said that they’d stay inside the Akashic Records.”
Arhad wanted to stay her because he was worried for her, but he couldn’t ask her to take it easy under these circumstances. Now was the time for them to review the information they had obtained after he had barely managed to push aside some of Ianna’s initial apprehensions.
“Your Majesty!”
A crowd of people came running to them.
“L-Lady Ianna?”
“Lady Ianna —is that really you, Dame Rise?”
Their desperate, hopeful, and sparkling gazes showered upon Ianna.
They were elite soldiers from Ex-knights who had been here to watch Arhad’s fight secretly only to end up witnessing Ianna’s battle too.
And they had witnessed everything clearly. They had witnessed Ianna’s skills as she overwhelmed the Bahamut emperor and pushed him into a corner.
The Ex-knights soldiers were overjoyed about the current situation, but they also couldn’t believe their eyes. They were certain that she was standing right before their very eyes, but they also found it difficult to comprehend that she was actually here and had personally battled the Bahamut emperor because she had been absent for over a year.
“In the flesh.”
Ianna cut away their doubts as if with steel.
“Where have you been all this time……?”
The soldiers were so baffled that they could not bring themselves to simply cheer.
“It hasn’t been very long since I woke up.”
“Oh…….”
The soldiers nodded, but then they stopped one after another as they each realized something. Had that astounding battle they had witnessed today really been fought by someone who had only recently awoken from a coma? When she was so strong that she had even managed to corner the Bahamut emperor?
Ecstasy slowly began to fill the soldiers’ faces.
Ianna had been absent for a year.
They had been doubting her strength because of that, but every last irreverent thought in their minds were wiped clean away today. Their hearts were filling up with the belief that they would be victorious.
“It’s the Great Knight of Ex-knights.”
“She’s perfectly fine.”
The Revolution Army who had followed after the Ex-knights soldiers to see what was going on began whispering amongst themselves.
“She’s not just perfectly fine —she’s an absolute monster…….”
There was a ray of idolization in their eyes even as they called her a monster.
Every soldier present were a part of the cores of the revolutionary or Ex-knights armies respectively, and they were each warriors who believed that they could always grow stronger by watching someone who was powerful.
They had not been able to study Ianna’s battle against Taylon in detail even though it had unfolded before their very eyes because the difference in strength between them was too large. But they could still learn valuable lessons as warriors if they observed persistently without giving up.
And they clearly understood that Ianna was the goal that they ought to pursue.
It was impossible for them to not idolize her.
“You’ve all been through so much trouble during my absence. It was only thanks to your efforts, as well as the efforts of everyone else back home, that Ex-knights is still alive and standing today. You have my gratitude.”
“Not at all. It’s only natural for us to fight to defend our own country!”
“It seems I’ve done you a discourtesy by misspeaking.”
Ianna smiled slightly and patted the shoulders of the Ex-knights soldiers who were standing before her. Then, she continued,
“I expect that even more difficult battles are yet to come. I intend to do my very best to uphold my duties, and I ask that you all do the same. And through our joint efforts, we shall be victorious.”
“Yes ma’am!”
The Ex-knights soldiers felt a keen sense of belonging and fellowship as Ianna, the very zenith of all warriors, treated them as her own and encouraged them. They felt like all their anguish over everything they had been through thus far was being washed away.
Then, Ianna’s gaze briefly turned to the Revolution Army.
“I pray that you will be able to obtain what you seek as well.”
The warmth she had displayed for the Ex-knights soldiers had vanished, and her business-like tone was cold with no hint of warmth within.
“Oh, right, thank you…….”
The soldiers of the Revolution Army tripped over their words.
Today marked their first time seeing Ianna. Their first impression of her was that she was very strong and very cold.
But they didn’t mean it in a bad way when they thought that she was cold. From their perspective, the way that she was considerate to her own countrymen while being unaffectionate with foreigners left very strong impressions on them and also made her more approachable. She was not high-handed even though she was powerful enough to defeat even their terrifying emperor, and their hearts stirred in their knowledge that they didn’t need to fear her.
They had a similar opinion of Ex-knights’ king. The Revolution Army was aware that Arhad had been taking the time to defend others, and the Ex-knights army in particular, and had kept them from getting caught up in the aftermath of his battles.
Ianna and Arhad were different from the Bahamut imperial family, who treated their own citizens like insects. It made the Revolution Army feel wretched.
The communication ring on Ianna’s thumb began flashing just then.
[We have an emergency situation.]
It was Eiji. Urgently, he continued,
[We found Elly, who’s been missing, but she’s…….]
~~*~~
Meow, meow. Meow!
Elly was corrupted black all over and collapsed on the ground when Ianna and Arhad returned to Ex-knights’ borders.
Meow! Meow!
Nissi was mewling sorrowfully by Elly’s side. She licked and bit Elly’s fingers, but Elly would not stir.
Round tears filled Nissi’s eyes and moistened her fur as they rolled down. Nissi’s legs had blackened too every time she tried to pat Elly.
“Nissi apparently just started going crazy out of nowhere, according to Herrace. He followed her only to find Elly and other civilians collapsed on the ground like this.”
Eiji explained the situation as soon as Ianna had arrived. He continued,
“We were somehow able to move the civilians to a hospital, but we had the leave Elly here like this because we couldn’t touch her. I’ve barred access to this place. The entire region’s been polluted.”
“What do we do, Little Ianna?”
Herrace was pallid as he did his best to console Nissi. Saki was sweating beside him as she continued to pour divine power into Elly’s body.
But the clotted black aura stemming from Elly’s body did not look like it was about subside anytime soon.
Ianna rushed forward and summoned all four spirits.
Swooosh!
The spirits obeyed Ianna’s will without asking any questions.
Kagomyne and Shweia purified the evil aura in the vicinity with Ianna’s divine power.
Towe and Innis melted into Elly’s body and began healing her even as the black aura began burning their own bodies.
Ianna knelt down on one knee and picked Elly, who had turned black, up. Her body was so decayed that Ianna could hardly make out any of her facial features.
But Ianna could tell.
The child she was holding wasn’t in Elly’s form, but Laos’.
‘Taylon…….’
She could feel Taylon’s sickening aura, which she had battled against to the point of exhaustion today, exuding from Laos’ being.
Ianna held Laos tightly in her arms. She pushed an overflowing amount of her own divine power, which was essentially life and power manifest, into him.
The deluge of her divine power rushed into Laos’ empty body like a swelling lake and quickly became an ocean.
Ianna’s red eyes were set ablaze.
‘Screw off!’
Shaaaaaa!
Heat exploded out of Laos’ body. The black aura that had been embedded inside the god’s body was chased away by a powerful gale.
Laos’ body began turning white once more. The spirits’ efforts were beginning to bear fruit as well.
Ianna opened her mind’s eye and studied Laos’ soul. It was still stained black. Simply pushing divine power inside him hadn’t been able to cleanse his polluted soul.
“Meow……. Meow…….”
Ianna pat Nissi on the head as the cat cried next to her. Nissi’s paws, which had turned black as if she’d stepped into ink, quickly turned white again.
Ianna moved Laos to an empty room and laid him in bed after they had finished organizing the situation.
Laos would not wake even though his body had fully healed. His state was different from how Eiji had fallen into a coma when he had lost his will to live. Laos’ soul was dreadfully exhausted, but it was still properly attached to the world.
Ianna placed her hand on Laos’ forehead.
“Why do you think he stayed outside our borders instead of coming inside?”
“The kingdom’s defenses are fundamentally set up to block the Bahamut imperial family, and they’ll be severely knocked back if they try to force their way inside. This child was there when we designed the system, and he probably didn’t try to breach the border because he knew what would happen if he did.”
Ianna was quietly looking down at Laos as she asked,
“Do you think Taylon was acting alone, or do you think Kandemayon betrayed Laos?”
She laid bare the two possibilities that she was weighing in her mind.
Laos had definitely promised to stay with Kandemayon until her fight against Taylon was over, and yet he had returned to this world alone. So then, what about Kandemayon?
“We have no way of knowing unless Laos tells us himself or we visit the Akashic Records.”
Ianna began tapping on the bed with her finger.
She did not think that Kandemayon had betrayed Laos. That was what her instincts told her. But she couldn’t be too sure that she was right just yet, so she decided to focus only on opening a door to the Akashic Records for now.
~~*~~
A few days later.
Ianna was finally able to open a door to the Akashic Records.
She had reached the stage where there were no longer any obstacles in her path and she could obtain results as long as she put in the time and effort. She had already experienced this once thanks to Taylon too, so it wasn’t very difficult for her to master ripping apart dimensional spacetime in order to force her way inside the Akashic Records.
Arhad had spent several days straight analyzing Taylon’s aura and skills while Ianna trained. He had been gathering data even as he did his best to support Ianna as they cornered Taylon, and he had been by and largely successful in his efforts.
His analysis was more or less finished after a few days.
To summarize, Taylon’s black aura was divine power that had been corrupted by the power of death.
Anyone who came into contact with Taylon’s aura would be ravaged with all sorts of sicknesses, their bodies would rot, and they would die quickly. It was rather contradictory, since divine power was life itself, but it wasn’t all that strange considering that most sicknesses were caused by pathogens, which were foreign microorganisms that invaded the body.
Furthermore, the malice and the terrifying bloodlust seeped inside Taylon’s black aura polluted the soul. Most people would lose their minds as soon as they came into contact with his aura because of fear or bloodlust.
The mere explanation of Taylon’s aura was already dreadful enough, but Ianna had a feeling that she would understand more about what exactly it was capable of after she visited the Akashic Records in a few days’ time.
Arhad also began preparing several anti-Taylon countermeasures.
Pursuit, defense, and offense.
First, was pursuit.
He entrusted samples of Isabella and Taylon’s blood, flesh, and bone fragments to the mages. The individual tracking method that Dorcianni had developed had proved useful against Shailince, so it wouldn’t be difficult for the mages to use that data to create a means to track down Taylon too.
Second, was defense.
Taylon’s aura was already dreadful enough as it contaminated Laos’ body, but even their air around it, which was permeated by the aura, was enough to render many people enervated. Arhad would not sit by idly and let his people die. And so, he had begun devising defensive fusion arts for both civilian use and military use.
Third, was offense.
Arhad predicted that their enemies’ battle tactics would change drastically, and that the coming battles would be more difficult than ever before. Ianna and Arhad would deal with Taylon, but everyone else would need to deal with the rest of the small fry. This meant that they, too, would need to change their own battle tactics to keep up with their enemies’.
And lastly, Arhad no longer wanted to be dragged along in his standoff against Taylon. So, he gathered every last drop of knowledge he had and began training himself to be completely incompatible with Taylon.
These countermeasures were at the beginning stages of preparation.
Arhad planned to prepare even more thoroughly once either Laos woke up or Ianna came back from the Akashic Records and he had clearer information.
“You’ve worked hard.”
“I had no choice if we’re to give Taylon no quarter.”
Arhad looked visibly fatigued. But that was only natural, since even Arhad would be exhausted after analyzing so much data and preparing countermeasures on top of devising new defensive and offensive skills.
“I hope this fight will end quickly.”
Ianna held Arhad in her arms and patted his back. Arhad closed his eyes and rubbed his cheeks against his beloved crimson hair.
“Me too…….”
Just being in Ianna’s arms was enough to give him strength.
Ianna embraced Arhad for quite some time before she released him and snuck a glance to the corner of the room. She and Arhad had been working through blood, sweat, and tears, but Laos still had yet to awaken from his deep slumber.
“He’s not waking up. I was hoping to be able to speak with him before I left.”
“It means that what was done to him was simply that horrific.”
Arhad placed his hands on Ianna’s shoulders and looked into her eyes as he earnestly continued,
“Taylon might still be there, so don’t you dare let down your guard. And escape immediately if you think you’re in danger.”
“Of course.”
“I want to go with you if I could have things my way, but…….”
“You say that while fully knowing that you can’t.”
It would be a disaster if Taylon invaded Ex-knights while neither of them were present.
“I know that you’ll do perfectly well, but you’re more important than the mission. All right?”
“Yes.”
Ianna smiled. She liked the way that he was still just as worried about her as he had been before even though she had grown so much stronger.
She squeezed Arhad’s hand tightly.
“I’ll be back.”
“Come home soon.”
Ianna drew Rise from her waist after Arhad had given her his bottomless trust.
“Hwoo…….”
She took a deep breath.
Rise became as one with her as she breathed.
Her breath became as the wind and melted into one of the slender Lines that were wringing out the world like it was a wet piece of cloth.
Her concentrated reached the extreme.
Rise slowly arced downward in a single flawless line.
Craaaackle.
Empty space roared like thunder as it shredded apart. Then, Ianna jumped through the opening she had created between the dimensions.
The scenery reflecting before her eyes changed completely.
Shaaaaaa.
Ianna fell down in empty space. She had intended to arrive at the center of the Akashic Records where souls were gathered, but she had ended up in the wrong place —perhaps because the Akashic Records were unstable at the moment.
But this worked out in her favor because it gave her the chance to survey the Akashic Records as a whole as she fell.
Ianna studied every order of the space she was in by twisting around her body and swallowed back a sigh. The Akashic Records looked nothing like what she remembered, and everything was in a mess.
The Akashic Records were structured like an hourglass. The top part was the world of progress, the bottom part was the world of retrogress, and the center part where the two halves intersected was the world of souls where time was jumbled up.
And, stretching from the top part to the center part, and then again to the bottom part of this space, was the record of everything that had ever happened in the world from the beginning of time to the present.
Ianna had only been here a few times previously, but the entire space had been filled to the brim with records, demonstrating the majesty of the Akashic Records during every visit —it wasn’t necessarily wrong to call the Akashic Records an infinite library.
But now, the space had visible gaps here and there as if someone had ripped it out and eaten it away.
Cruuunch.
Nothing was placed to fill those gaps, and the space, filled with the world’s records, stuck to each other in order to bridge the emptiness. And so, the Akashic Records were shrinking.
The entire Akashic Records were quaking in instability. Ianna felt like she was standing inside a building that was about to collapse.
‘Is it possible for the Akashic Records to disappear if it’s destroyed? But what will happen to the world then?’
She was drawing closer to her destination, the heart of the Akashic Records.
Ianna slowed down her fall and focused her vision as she looked down at the center where she was soon to land. And just as she’d expected, the divine power that was supposed to be overflowing from the cradle of souls in order to carry out the process of birth was depleted, and there were significantly fewer souls inside than there had been before. Actually, there were hardly any souls left at all.
‘And the things that are left……don’t quite seem to be souls either.’
Every alarm in her soul began ringing when she focused her full concentration at the center of the Akashic Records.
Shaaaaa!
A black aura tangled into the entirety of the Akashic Records like a dense net before Ianna had the chance to brandish her sword.
Swish!
Ianna’s sword swung against the shielding net a beat later. And, just like what had happened a few days ago, she felt a bizarre sensation on her blade, like there was still more left to cut even after she had torn into Taylon, and was not able to slice all the way through.
Her vision was ultimately covered by a darkness in which she could not see a thing. The darkness was scarily serene and vicious.
‘Taylon’s here.’
Ianna grew wary of her surroundings as she entered a battle stance.
She had undoubtedly been a little stronger than him when they had clashed just a few days ago. That was why she had believed that he would have escaped instead of trying to fight her when she arrived at the Akashic Records.
And yet, he was picking a fight with her this openly? Why was he so confident?
‘Where is he……?’
She heightened her senses in order to locate him, and then a chill ran down her spine that was so poignant that it not only chilled her all the way down to her bones but also to her very soul.
Swoooooosh…….
There was a roar like when the wind breezed through an empty cave. Then, undecipherable mumblings, like those of someone who had completely lost their mind, began resounding from all around her.
But there was a very clear will embedded inside the noise.
“Die…….”
“Just die…….”
Vivid bloodlust stabbed her like millions of needles.
Ianna wrapped her body in divine power and turned herself into a flame.
And what she saw after illuminating the darkness horrified her.
An immeasurable number of living creatures had filled the Akashic Records to the brim. More dim eyes were staring at her than there were grains of sand on the beach. Heads of all shapes and sizes were turned on her. And they were all walking toward her with their arms outstretched to her.
‘A psychic attack?’
Swish!
Ianna cut down the first lifeform that reached her. It didn’t scream, but she could vividly feel her sword cutting through flesh and bone. This wasn’t an illusion. These were bodies with real substance.
But they weren’t normal bodies either. After all, she could not feel any life coming from them.
Slaaaash!
Rise drew a brilliant circle. A ring of light burst out around Ianna, illuminated her surroundings, and vanished away after cutting down the things that were writhing before her.
Ianna used both her physical and spiritual eyes to study the things that she had cut down in detail.
‘They’re humanoid bodies created from black divine power.’
Physically, most of the lifeforms were sexless creatures that were both humanoid and monstrous, just like how Keigus Dimitri’s chimeras had once been. But there were also some lifeforms that looked like normal humans, elves, dwarves, beastmen, mermaids, beasts, insects, or monsters.
‘They have cores instead of hearts.’
A core was a stone made of magic. Unshapely cores were embedded in the lifeforms’ chests to function as their hearts, and each core also contained a soul.
‘And each soul is corrupted black.’
The souls were pitch black, as if they had been dunked inside Taylon’s black divine power. They had lost their natural light and were drowned in darkness because they had been dominated by his Ideas.
Arhad’s prediction had come true.
‘That bastard Taylon learned how to use the souls in the Akashic Records to create unnatural life!’
Taylon had devoured the souls in the Akashic Records, which had their own egos but were unconscious, and had made them his. Those souls had become new life after he had implanted them inside haphazardly created bodies.
“Any life that’s been born that way will be blank states, just like any other newborn life. But Taylon will be able to turn them into living weapons of carnage if he pollutes them with his black aura and brainwashes them while they’re in that state.”
Ianna recalled what Arhad had told her.
“Die.”
“Die.”
“Die!”
The creatures of death, who knew only how to say “die,” emanated vivid bloodlust as they ran toward Ianna.
The monsters were parts of Taylon, and they gave off the same aura as him. Ianna was certain that Taylon was here, but she could not pinpoint his exact location because there were too many monsters.
Swish!
Ianna sliced apart the bastards that had run up to her and tried to create an exit out of the Akashic Records. But there was no world beyond the opening she created. There was only an unending darkness. The entire space was Taylon’s territory, and it had been completely cut off from the world.
Ianna Rent indiscriminately.
She Rent and Rent, but all she could feel on her blade was the unpleasant sensation that told her that there were still countless things she needed to Rend.
“…….”
Ianna abruptly stopped Rending and looked up and out into the distance at the immeasurable number of things that she still needed to cut down.
She could hear cackling around her…… It was laughter. Ianna understood that the laughter belonged to the creations who emphasized with Taylon, who was surely jeering at her from somewhere.
Do you really think you’ll be able to leave?
The entire space reeked of the sticky desire to devour Ianna whole.
[You walked into a trap.]
[You can’t escape.]
[Starting today, you’ll be here with us forever.]
Familiar voices whispered into her ear seductively like an auditory hallucination.
Ianna smiled.
‘Bullshit.’
It didn’t matter what kind of power that Taylon had obtained from here or what kinds of traps he had lain. It didn’t matter even if he devoured the entire Akashic Records.
Ianna was confident that she could escape no matter what danger came her way. She was confident that she wouldn’t lose, and she was confident that she wouldn’t die. This was simply her honest evaluation of herself, with neither exaggeration nor deception involved.
She didn’t even consider this an actual trap. It was extreme training at best. It was also beneficial to her because this meant that Taylon was focusing on her and no one else.
‘There’s still more to Rend no matter how much I’ve already Rent?’
Ianna held her sword upright. Her red eyes glistened behind her blade.
‘In that case, I’ll just keep Rending until there’s nothing left!’
The lone flame in the darkness flared as if it meant to devour the world.
She Rent.
She Rent and Rent and Rent again.
She Rent after she Rent, and then she Rent after she had finished Rending.
She Rent and Rent and Rent, and she Rent without end.
It was unending. Even she didn’t know how much time had passed.
Pow!
Ianna Rent five creatures and destroyed their cores, and then she absorbed the black divine power that seeped out from them.
She had to destroy her enemies’ cores because they didn’t stop even if she cut off their limbs, likely because they had no sense of pain.
But if all she did was shatter them, then they would disperse briefly back into divine power before reforming back into cores thanks to Taylon’s magic. Divine power was only consumed when using one’s power, when using divine arts, and when carrying out life activities, so none of Taylon’s divine power was consumed no matter how many times the cores were shattered and recreated.
And so, Ianna was forced to steal Taylon’s divine power as she destroyed the cores, and the polluted divine power steadily began dying her body and soul black.
She could have also Rent the souls and extinguished them.
But Ianna chose not to do that.
The pitiful souls were only being used by Taylon against their will.
Some of them had been probably waiting eagerly for the day they could be born again, and some of them probably only wanted to rest.
These souls had lost their way because Taylon had destroyed the cycle of souls.
And Ianna did not Rend those who had lost their way.
This was her conviction.
Ianna continued to destroy the cores and absorb the divine power to the point of foolishness. She piled up the blackened divine power inside her heart and forcefully made it hers. But that process was slower than the rate at which she was absorbing the black divine power.
Ianna continued to blacken.
And then, eventually, the black aura began influencing Ianna’s powerful body and indomitable soul. She had to fight not only externally but internally as well.
[I want to grow stronger.
[I have to grow stronger.
[I will grow stronger!]
The black monster heightened her greed to grow stronger.
[Why do I want to grow stronger?]
The black monster dragged out the small existence at the very bottom of Ianna’s soul as it sought out the origin of her desires.
It was a young little girl.
The little girl had killed herself because she was so exhausted from crying in secret, and she had grown spiteful after being reborn with sword in hand.
[Weak —I’m too weak. I can’t do anything if I’m weak.
[I have to pretend I never heard anything even if I’m ridiculed, and I have to pretend otherwise even if I’m hurt.
[I’ll just get hurt and die if I’m weak.]
The crying little girl moved her mouth like she was a doll. Hatred and terror filled her throat. Ianna realized that something was off even as her consciousness grew hazy.
‘This isn’t why I want to grow stronger anymore.’
The mask covering the little girl’s face broke into pieces as soon as Ianna noticed that something was off. She wasn’t crying anymore, and she was smiling.
The black monsters continued digging through the bottom of Ianna’s soul and ferreted out yet another existence.
It was a woman who was brimming with bloodlust.
[I won’t tolerate anyone standing above me.
[I’ll never concede defeat! I’ll win eventually. I’m going to grow stronger than you, and I’ll sneer as I bring you to your knees before me.
[I have to be the best at the sword. The sword is all I have!]
The woman’s features crumpled as she continued insisting desperately. Her inferiority complex and jealousy had paralyzed her ability to reason. Ianna simply shrugged.
‘This isn’t why I want to grow stronger either.’
The mask covering the woman’s face faded away when Ianna denied her. The woman was grinning in competitive passion, and she looked like she was having fun.
The black monster returned to the surface because it could not find any more negative origins inside Ianna.
There was an impregnable fortress standing tall over the land that had been built upon past emotions that no longer existed. The Ianna of the present was standing tall as she stood guard at the gates.
The black monster could not reach the ‘reason why Ianna wanted to grow stronger’ no matter how hard it tried, so it decided to ask her outright.
[Do you wish to grow stronger?]
I do.
[Why?]
Because I like being strong,
the Ianna of the present replied. The black monster began to forcefully feed the magma deep inside her soul.
[Then, grow stronger.
[Grow strong!
[Grow stronger than any other!]
I know.
I’m going to grow stronger. I have to grow stronger. I will grow stronger. Stronger than any other. I’ll grow stronger, and stronger, and I’ll keep growing stronger still. I’m going to grow stronger than how much stronger I’ve already grown, and I’m only going to keep growing ever stronger.
The obsession made Ianna breathless.
You say that I need to keep growing stronger even after I’ve already grown stronger and stronger. Why are you telling me to grow so strong? How long do I have to keep growing stronger? Why do you keep cornering me? Do I need to keep growing stronger until the day I die?
Ianna looked like her breath had caught and she was suffocating as she let out a ragged breath.
This…….
She looked thrilled.
This is fun.
Her each and every breath was oozing with ecstasy. Whipping someone who already wanted to grow stronger and telling them to grow strong could only register as painfully sweet.
[You…you were a brethren of mine.]
The black monster smiled in satisfaction. Ianna also felt a kinship with him.
[Come to me, in that case.
[You can grow even stronger if you’re with me.
[Let’s be together.]
The darkness opened its maw as if it found Ianna delectable.
Ianna was about to reach out to the monster before she stopped in her tracks.
The image of a certain man was glimmering before her.
It was the one man who had always supported her.
The man who had always been her goal.
There was a man who had become her guidepost so that she would not become like the monster before her.
The man whom she carried deep inside her heart. She loved him like crazy.
Ianna wanted to best him because he was the strongest person in the world, and she wanted to protect him because she loved him more than anything else in the world.
‘I want to grow stronger. I like being strong.’
Ianna looked back as she lowered her arm.
‘I want to be strong.’
Her man, whom she had kept safely locked away and hidden deep inside her impregnable fortress, had come outside. The one she loved was holding a single crimson flower out to her.
‘And that is because I want to be happy with you.’
I’m not like you!
Ianna turned her back on the monster and ran to him. She held onto the flower alongside him.
Countless flowers blossomed around them. They were glowing in a radiant golden light, just like the sun.
Booooooooooom!
Fire erupted.
The aura of life spread all throughout her being and burned away the polluted aura. Ianna’s soul became one giant flame once more. Crimson divine power burst out like countless strands of lightning and razed everything to the ground.
“You damnable bastard. Stop spouting nonsense and come out already.”
Hellfire was blazing inside Ianna’s eyes. They reflected the light of her soul.
“I’ll just keep taking from you until you do!”
Ianna began brandishing her sword for an indeterminable duration of time yet again.
The flame of her soul only burned ever fiercer.
Her sword grew sharper and more exquisite. It grew subtler and more destructive. She was ascending ever higher in the midst of this crisis.
A long time passed.
Ianna’s soul drank deeply of the abyss and became the color of chaos as darkness and madness was mixed into it. But, even if her body was rotting away and reaching its limit, and even if her soul was corrupted and her psyche was about to break apart, the flame burning inside her heart refused to extinguish.
Swish!
Ianna mechanically Rent the enemy before her eyes. She was moving with only one goal in mind.
‘I’ll kill you, Taylon!’
Her desire only continued to grow larger.
Booooooooom!
Fortification burst out from Ianna’s blade and struck something off to the side. Her unfocused eyes glistened. Ianna sensed the minute change even though her psyche was reaching its limit.
It struck shallow.
She didn’t know if this signaled the end or if Taylon had changed his plans, but she understood for certain that the situation had changed.
[You really are remarkable. I applaud you!]
Taylon’s irritated voice reverberated throughout the entire space just then. There was no fake laughter in his voice. He continued,
[And here I thought that I’d be able to trap you for sure……. You truly are an incredible monster.]
Shaaaaa.
The curtain of darkness began pulling into a single point. The endless army that Ianna had been fighting until now was slipping away into the gaps between dimensions that began appearing everywhere, but Ianna did not care about anything other than her target.
She ran toward that singular point.
Baaaang!
Ianna’s crimson sword clashed against Taylon’s black lance.
Creeeack.
Crackle, crackle, crackle.
The weapons grinded against each other as they were locked in place. A powerful wave of energy exploded outward.
‘I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you!’
The light in Ianna’s eyes remained piercing even as the rest of her body was beginning to cool.
Sword and lance broke away ever so slightly.
And then, they began to clash against each other at speeds faster than the speed of light.
Boom! Bababoom! Boooom!
A black lance with the power to destroy the world, countless souls dyed in Ideas, the gigantic horns and claws of a monster, fangs coated in lethal poison, and a whip-like tongue.
Ianna faced all of that with nothing but a single sword.
Bite wounds began appearing on Ianna’s rotting but otherwise unscathed body. Taylon’s unblemished body, too, was slowly being marred by deep scars left behind by Ianna’s sword.
Booooom!
The shockwave the resulted as the two giant powers collided shook the Akashic Records. It was so strong that not even the Balance could withstand it, and the Akashic Records quaked. It was heralding its collapse.
“…….”
Taylon, who was always so arrogant, was incredibly disheveled and emotionless. The line of his lips was stiff now that the smirk had been wiped off his face.
‘What more do I possibly need to do in order to eat you?’
Taylon was extremely on edge because of Ianna, and he had lost his composure. The light in his eyes was terrifying.
Rumbleeee…….
The Akashic Records were shrinking visibly.
Taylon determined that he could not stay here any longer, so he sliced open a gap between dimensions and escaped the Akashic Records.
Ianna chased after him. Taylon tried to stop her with his black aura, but she was already hot on his tail.
They arrived inside the heart of imperial castle in Takalon, the imperial capital of the Bahamut Empire. Ianna had been completely unhindered as she arrived at the very heart and center of Taylon’s territory.
Boooom! Boom!
Ianna’s sword was slightly weakened because she was deep inside Taylon’s territory, but she refused to stop. She was absolutely oozing with bloodlust as she moved only to destroy Taylon, his castle, and his power.
Crackle, crackle, crackle.
The imperial castle also began quaking like it was about to collapse just as the Akashic Records had.
Taylon was frightened, as if his very heart had been exposed to his enemy. A crack ran down the smooth features of his mien.
“……This is as far as you go!”
Taylon used every last drop of strength he had to banish Ianna from Takalon. He was greedy for her, so he had never once pushed her away before. He had fought her, and he had run from her, but this was the first time he had ever pushed her away out of genuine dread.
Ianna was accustomed to Taylon always approaching her, so she was caught off guard when he rejected her in the form of banishment.
Booom!
The gates to Takalon, the imperial castle, were sealed completely as soon as Ianna fell outside.
Ianna staggered to her feet and ran up to Takalon’s ramparts. Her sword chaotically beat against the ramparts and gates. But Takalon had been fortified by the aura of darkness, and Ianna’s haphazard attacks could not break through.
And so, Ianna opened her mouth.
“Haaaah…….”
Whoooosh.
The black aura that had been covering Takalon slipped inside her mouth. Crimson and black divine power raged and twisted into one colossal gale.
A destructive storm raged as if it meant to topple the heavens.
“Haaaah…….”
At the eye of the storm was a lone blackened monster with crimson fires blazing in her eyes.
The monster was menacing.
But it was also breaking itself down.
I’ll kill the bastard.
I’ll kill him!
I’ll kill…….
A warm and familiar strength swept over Ianna from behind as she was losing her mind to her bloodlust.
“Ianna!”
All he had done was to call her name just once.
“Oh.”
And Ianna found herself again.
“Ugh…….”
Ianna clutched her head as she stood inside Arhad’s embrace. She felt like her head was ripping apart. She felt like her body was about to explode.
Arhad held onto Ianna tightly just as she was about to keel over and relocated to somewhere safe.
“Gasp, gasp, gasp.”
“Call the spirits, Ianna!”
But Ianna couldn’t hear him.
And so, Arhad gritted his teeth and summoned the spirits for the first time in his life.
He was still at odds with the spirits, and he was loathe to even speak with them unless it was absolutely necessary. But Arhad called out for them desperately in that moment, and they answered to his desperation.
[Oh my gosh, Ianna!]
[What happened to your body……?]
[You got hurt again! And you’re so gaunt! Sobsobsob.]
The spirits quickly accepted the divine power that Arhad was supplying them and rushed inside Ianna’s body.
[Owwwww!]
[This hurts! This is so much worse than with Laos!]
The spirits’ pure bodies began burning as soon as they came into contact with the black divine power that Ianna was drenched in. They burnt black in their agony. They were unable to best Taylon’s divine power, and their own power could not reach Ianna.
“…….”
Arhad grabbed Ianna’s face. He pulled her body tightly against his. She had been dyed so deeply that he couldn’t even make out her features, but he found her lips and pressed his own against them.
Their lips interlocked.
He pressed harder against her lips. And he invaded into them deeply when they parted.
He was drinking deeply of the black divine power that was weakening her soul through their intimate contact. He squeezed her body into his own and wrung out the darkness.
His vast Abaddon devoured the darkness. Then, his warm and radiant gold imbued life into his lover.
Shaaaaa…….
The fiery crimson and radiant gold meshed into one. They did not offset each other, but instead fused harmoniously together to create the ultimate aura. It was the strongest, most beautiful, most blinding, and most importantly —the most powerful aura in the world.
The black divine power that was eating away at Ianna’s body grew noticeably less concentrated thanks to Arhad’s sacrifice. The spirits watched the light that Ianna and Arhad had created in a daze before they snapped back to their senses and began treating Ianna.
New flesh formed over her rotting body, and fresh blood flowed in her veins in place of the polluted blood. Her body was filled with the vibrant aura of life instead of the aura of death.
It was only after a long time had passed that Ianna’s body and soul returned to normal.
“U-ughh.”
Ianna was so exhausted that she was about to lose consciousness, but she shuddered in her bloodlust for Taylon even still.
Damned bastard. Irritating bastard. Persistent bastard!
Just as how Taylon’s anxiety and vexation had surpassed his greed, so too was Ianna’s irritation and disgust about to surpass her perseverance.
This had been her third battle against Taylon. She had fought so hard, but it had still ended in a stalemate.
Next time would be the last. It would truly spell the end.
She would kill him without fail the next time they met.
And she would grow stronger and stronger until then.
All just to kill the bastard!
Arhad took Ianna’s hand just then.
“Stop thinking and just rest for now, Ianna.”
Arhad carefully wrapped himself around Ianna and rubbed his cheek against her forehead.
“…….”
His gentle care washed away her rage and bloodlust as if she had been dunked in fresh spring water.
Ianna mellowed instantaneously.
She melted in his arms, and she leaned her head against his chin as she closed her eyes.
The invincible shield that was his embrace.
Her one and only home in which she could be at ease.
She liked this so much.
Ianna suddenly remembered that Taylon had ripped open several gaps between the dimensions and had sent forth his immortal army out into the world. What state was the world in right now?
‘I’m sure Arhad blocked it.’
That was the last thought Ianna had before she blacked out completely.
~~*~~
Ianna woke up a week later.
“A month?”
Ianna asked in disbelief as she learned just how long she had been inside the Akashic Records while she ate her first proper meal in a truly long time.
“Yeah.”
“…….”
Ianna snuck a sideways glance at Arhad. It looked like he was telling the truth, especially considering that his cheeks appeared a little more sunken than what she last remembered. She hadn’t stayed away for so long by intention, but she was still embarrassed and sorry nonetheless. She said,
“You must’ve been terribly worried.”
“You’re stating the obvious. But I trusted that you were still fighting Taylon the entire time. After all, Taylon was gone for the past month too.”
Arhad sighed and confessed about how much heartache he had suffered. He continued,
“I tried opening the Akashic Records by myself, but it refused to let me. Laos wouldn’t wake up either, so I had to stay put and just wait while doing my job because there was nothing else I could do. Then, I suddenly located you and Taylon in Takalon, so I went there only to find everything in a right mess. And things are still in a mess.”
Ianna was about to bring her spoon up to her lips when she instead asked,
“Is it all right for me to be eating so peacefully right now?”
“It’s fine, since I prepared for everything thoroughly while you were away. There’s nothing wrong with our kingdom.”
Which meant that things were problematic in other kingdoms.
Ianna packed away everything that had been prepared on the plates before her and straightened out her posture. Arhad, too, laced his fingers together and looked directly back at her.
“Well, you’ve finished eating now. Tell me about everything that’s happened to you, from beginning to end.”
Ianna nodded and told Arhad about everything she had seen and felt inside the Akashic Records.
First, Taylon had devoured all the divine power, souls, and the records of time inside the Akashic Records.
Second, Taylon had created aberrant lifeforms, just as Arhad had predicted. Ianna had been trapped inside the heart of the Akashic Records, which was now a part of Taylon’s territory, and the bastard’s army had attacked her. There had been so many of them that she had lost her sense of time as she Rent and Rent away at them.
Third, Ianna had been fighting Taylon while being half out of her right mind when she followed him out of the Akashic Records because the Akashic Records were about to collapse. She found herself in Takalon when they made it out, so she had tried to destroy it.
Ianna had been away for an entire month, but her explanation about what had happened during that month was brief, albeit weighted. She didn’t have much to say because she had been destroying things mechanically for the most part.
The blood had drained from Arhad’s face. He reached out and firmly grasped Ianna’s hand, which was resting on the table.
“You’ve been through a lot. It must’ve been hard.”
“Not really. It was hard, but compared to what I’d been expecting…….”
Ianna stopped mid-sentence. It truly had been hard, now that she thought about it properly. Her stamina had exhausted at some point, so she had been enduring with only her willpower, and then her willpower had exhausted too and she had nearly taken Taylon’s hand when he had used his hallucinations on her.
Ianna placed her other hand on top of Arhad’s and squeezed.
“It was hard, but I was able to endure it because of my love for you.”
This was a truly unexpected confession from Arhad’s perspective. His face immediately flushed bright red.
“You really like saying things like that out of nowhere with no warning whatsoever. I like it, but it’s also bad for my heart……. But that doesn’t mean I’m asking you to stop, naturally.”
Ianna grinned, prompting Arhad to clear his throat.
“I’d like to hear about what you’ve been up to now.”
Ianna had been in the fiercer and more dangerous situation, but Arhad had much more to say.
Arhad had predicted most of the future after Ianna’s and Taylon’s previous clash, and he had made all sorts of preparations ahead of the bleak future he predicted. Ianna had essentially given him an entire month to prepare, so he had been able to make all of his plans a reality during that time.
Arhad organized everything and told Ianna only the important parts.
“We were successful in developing a means to track down Taylon and Isabella.”
He could find the bastards anywhere now, so long as they were still in this world. He continued,
“We were also able to create a defensive art that will let ordinary civilians withstand Taylon’s aura.”
They wouldn’t be able to withstand it if Taylon attacked them with the intent of killing them, but they at the very least would no longer simply collapse and die just because they had come into contact with Taylon’s aura. It was a difficult art for noncombatants to learn, but it was something that everyone would need to learn in order to survive. Arhad had also shared the art with other countries.
“I’ve also predicted the characteristics of any lifeforms that Taylon could potentially create, and we were able to develop offensive measures and all kinds of weapons that will prove effective against them.”
The army had been trained to target the lifeforms’ hearts directly.
Arhad had taught the army close-quarters offensive techniques that targeted only the heart and ignored everything else. He had also ordered the archers to shoot one arrow at the time while targeting only the heart, even if it was slower. Mages and spiritualists had also been ordered to learn spells and arts that could destroy hearts.
It was extremely difficult to target only one body part in the heat of battle. A lot of people had grown puzzled by Arhad’s orders, because it was usually very inefficient to only target one body part, but they trusted him and obeyed nonetheless.
Moreover, Arhad had also ordered the smiths to forge weapons imbued with spirit arts and divine arts, which were incompatible with Taylon’s aura.
“These are the things that I’ve prepared for us to do battle against Bahamut.”
“I almost feel like you went through far more trouble than I did.”
It must’ve been difficult to get all this done in just one month.
“We’ve both been through a lot.”
Arhad rubbed the back of Ianna’s hand. He continued,
“Next, let me tell you about everything else that’s happened this past month. First and foremost, rumors that the emperor of Bahamut was defeated by the great knight of Ex-knights in battle and fled have spread all across the world.”
The rumors had been spread by the people who had witnessed Ianna’s battle against Taylon. Arhad and Eiji had given those rumors wings, and the rumors had spread like wildfire and had shaken the entire continent.
Ianna of Ex-knights had awoken!
She had fought the emperor and won even though she had only woken up not too long ago!
Then, Taylon had disappeared for a month, lending credence to the rumors, and the Revolution Army had grown excited. The people of Ex-knights had sued Arhad for the truth, to which he had responded that it was, and the people had been enveloped in cheers.
Everyone in Ex-knights wanted to see Ianna in person. But the people had no choice but to wallow in their wistfulness because Arhad had declared that she was undergoing intense training in order to put an end to this tedious war.
There were still people who didn’t believe in Ianna, but most found hope in her as if she was the sole star they had found after wandering the darkness. It was beginning to seem like the dark clouds covering the continent were finally about to be drawn away.
“I brought Isphee and Evelyn to our castle, and I had Karnitz desert the Knights of Pakalon.”
Karnitz had been using his deligent and upright image to sneakily interfere with Bahamut’s central army and sow doubt. Isphee had also been using her connections in Bahamut to subtly spread the word about how great Ex-knights was while also spreading bad rumors about Bahamut.
They had been carrying out their work admirably, but Arhad’s instincts had sounded the alarm and warned him that they would be in danger if they stayed in Bahamut any longer.
Arhad had explained the situation to Karnitz and Isphee as best as he could and had earnestly asked them to flee, and they had ultimately obeyed. The atmosphere inside Bahamut was in such chaos at the moment that it hadn’t been difficult for Karnitz and Isphee to slip away while pretending to go on a trip.
“Are all three on them here inside the castle right now?”
“Yes. You should go and see them later.”
Ianna sighed a breath of relief. Karnitz’s family was one of her fatal weaknesses. She had always been nervous about leaving her weakness inside Bahamut, but now she would no longer have to worry about them. She was glad that they had returned to her side safe and sound. She was truly so glad.
“Thank you.”
“Not at all. And during this past week while you were unconscious…….”
The world had jolted yet again after Ianna and Taylon had returned from the Akashic Records. Mysterious lifeforms that did not die unless their hearts were destroyed had appeared everywhere.
It was impossible to communicate with them. They were like starved devils who rushed forward blindly while thirsting only for slaughter. Not only did they not feel pain, but they were also powerful.
The above explanation alone was enough to shock most, but there was one more thing that was even more astonishing about them.
Included in their number were people who were known to be dead. Ancestors that people had only seen in portraits, grandparents who had closed their eyes for the final time after their life span had been up, children whom parents had buried deep within their hearts while wailing……. News that the dead, who should no longer be here, had been spotted had spread all throughout the continent.
The reason why the lifeforms that Taylon had created sometimes resembled the dead was because he had created their bodies to match the appearance of their souls as closely as possible. But the people were left bewildered because they did not know about this.
And so, Taylon’s army had shaken the world.
Additionally, Taylon had locked himself up under seal in Takalon for two days before he had come back out into the world.
“Taylon’s started absorbing the world itself this time.”
Ianna immediately developed a headache.
“There really is no end to this, is there?”
This was not only groundbreaking but also astounding. Ianna had thought that victory was well within her grasp, but the question of who would be the final victor was thrown back into the air. The sheer desire that Taylon carried inside his heart for power warranted despair —or, at the very least, awe.
“I can’t even begin to imagine how that crazy bastard is absorbing the world itself.”
“It’s difficult for me to describe it in words too, so you might want to see it for yourself.”
Ianna agreed, and then she asked one last question that she had been curious about.
“Is Laos still asleep?”
“No. He woke up when you returned from the Akashic Records. We agreed that he would talk once you were awake. He’s working as Elly right now.”
Ianna jumped to her feet.
“You should have said this first. Let’s go and talk to him immediately.”
The doors opened.
“You don’t need to go anywhere. I’m already here.”
Laos —Elly— and Nissi came inside.
“Meow!”
Nissi ran up to Ianna and rubbed her cheek against Ianna’s calf. Ianna stooped over and petted Nissi’s frame with pity. The cat had lost so much weight —she had undoubtedly gone through much heartbreak herself.
Elly was faring no better. Her body had returned to normal, but her expression was somber. Her previous sunny cheer was nowhere to be found.
“Come on in.”
Ianna sat Elly down at the table and sat down next to Arhad on the other side. Then, she said,
“I’m going to call you Elly.”
“Please call me by whatever name is comfortable to you.”
“All right. Tell us what happened inside the Akashic Records, Elly. And, where is Kandemayon?”
Ianna had not seen a single scale of Kandemayon’s inside the Akashic Records. All she had found was Taylon and his army. What did that imply? She continued,
“Did Kandemayon betray you and side with Taylon?”
“No.”
Elly recollected the day that Taylon had invaded the Akashic Records. She continued,
“Kan saved me.”
~~*~~
Laos and Kandemayon sat down and looked down at the Akashic Records together for the first time in a very long while after sending Ianna away.
Laos asked Kandemayon,
“Kan, you hate me, don’t you?”
“I always tell you this —I don’t hate you, but I don’t not hate you either.”
This was a question that Laos asked Kandemayon —the shadow whom he called ‘Kan’— from time to time. And Kan always replied with the same answer.
“You want me to die, don’t you?”
“As I always tell you —I want you to die, but I also don’t want you to die.”
This was how Laos’ and Kan’s conversations usually went. Kan’s replies were always vague.
“…….”
Laos, who was a boy of white colors, stared quietly at his polar opposite —the girl of black colors.
Kandemayon was Laos’ opposite, who had been forced to be born in order to keep equilibrium with Laos when Laos was born.
Kan symbolized and governed over death and endings, but, paradoxically, she herself could not die. Laos had to die first in order for Kan to be able to find her true self.
But Kan never tried to kill Laos —rather, she always let him do whatever it was that he wanted. All she did was to correct any imbalance that Laos created with his actions and restore everything to equilibrium.
Laos closed his mouth and reflected upon the unfathomably long time he had spent with Kan.
With great power, came a great price.
Laos had been born with great power, and so, the Balance should have bestowed upon him a mission that had to do with equilibrium. Just as it had his mother, Roberstein…….
But Laos had not been bestowed a mission.
The reason why Laos was free to do whatever he wanted without being bound to a mission was because Kan, who had been born as his shadow, had shouldered all his duties in his stead. She had no choice but to follow Laos around and maintain equilibrium until the very moment he finally died.
“Thanks.”
“What for?”
Laos slowly rested his head against Kan’s shoulder. A pair of black eyes, not unlike glass beads, turned to the white head resting on her shoulder.
“You have terrible speech manners, but you always let me do what I want. You’ve never tried to kill me either.”
“…….”
“I still don’t know what you’re thinking even though I’ve been with you for such an unfathomably long time. But I at least understand that you care about me.”
Kandemayon had been Laos’ one and only family who had stood by him and safeguarded him after the End of the Holy Age. She was more distant from him than any other, but she was also his closest friend, and she was his most terrifying enemy, but she was also his dearest guardian.
Kan stared down at Laos quietly before she turned away.
“You’ll die someday anyway even if I don’t kill you first. Everything in this world is destined to end eventually. I am simply standing at the finish line and watching over your life as you head toward your death.”
“Don’t you ever get tired of waiting?”
“Not in particular, no. What I am tired of, is the heavy duty that was imposed upon me. I don’t mind cleaning up after you, but I’m tired of being forced into doing it.”
They were the two scales that hung from the Balance, which meant that they were ultimately dancing on top of the Balance’s palms. They could not escape unless they died, and they must not escape for the world’s sake.
“But you’re always only looking at the ‘finish line,’ aren’t you?”
“I am.”
Laos smirked.
‘That’s why we started our bet so many years ago.’
They had always differed in their opinions about what would happen to the world, but they had never fought bitterly over their differences. They had debated lightly with words at most.
It was Laos who had first proposed their ‘bet’ by using their difference in opinion as an excuse.
Kandemayon had consented to the bet readily out of intrigue. Kandemayon had then asked what the prize of their bet was to be, to which Laos had answered that the loser would grant the winner any wish no matter what it was.
Kandemayon had told Laos that she would ask Laos to die if she won. Laos had smiled. Then, Kandemayon had asked Laos what it was that he wanted. And Laos had equivocated and said that he didn’t know quite yet.
But he’d actually already known his answer before he had even proposed the bet.
“About our bet, Kan… Do you still think that the world will be destroyed?”
Kan did not reply. Laos continued,
“You know… I agree with you that every being that exists in this world has an end and that they must have an end. They’ll only become dull like the gods from the Holy Age if they don’t. An ending is what helps life live more beautifully and passionately. And there has to be an end in order for there to be a new beginning.”
“…….”
“This world that I created will undoubtedly end someday too. I’m just predicting that we can’t see that ending just yet and that the world will continue to expand for the time being. But our bet was, ‘in which directly will this world move immediately after the problem regarding the Demon’s heart is solved?’ so I’m going to win it.”
Laos’ voice grew quieter as he mumbled to himself until he finally said,
“I’m sorry.”
At last, he apologized to Kan.
“Why are you apologizing.”
“Because you always allowed yourself to be swayed by me. You know, Kan? I’m only saying this now, but I don’t really care that much about the outcome of our bet.”
Laos closed his eyes. He continued,
“I just want to grant you death now.”
Kan huffed when she heard what Laos had said.
“Just be honest and say that you want to die.”
“Maybe you’re right.”
Laos let himself be spoiled as he rested on Kan’s shoulder. He continued,
“I’ve been alive for way too long, and I’m exhausted. And I don’t think that this world needs a ‘god’ who’s dominated by the Balance’s equilibrium anymore. This world needs to be led by beings with powerful wills of their own who can stand on equal footing with the Balance and who can adapt to and fight against the unreasonable thing we call equilibrium.”
“…….”
“My role is finished. I don’t have any wishes either because I was able to watch over my mom and dad’s endings too. Ianna and Arhad —I just want to die once I’m done watching over their lives. But, make sure to tell me if you still want to live, Kan. I’ll stay alive until you want to die too.”
“You’ve always been such a stupid fool,”
Kan censured. Laos smiled silently, but he stopped responding.
Both Laos and Kandemayon had truly stopped meddling with the world after Ianna had left. They simply sat inside the Akashic Records as the world revolved. They had done nothing even as Taylon had devoured the dragons, to whom they had granted their powers and were essentially their children.
“It seems like our bet is leaning in my favor. I don’t think that there’s much time left until this world is completely destroyed, considering all that Taylon’s been doing.”
“But there’s still Ianna and Arhad. Ianna and Arhad are growing stronger at a blinding speed. Ianna will be able to Rend anything apart, and Arhad will be able to protect anything he wants to. Even we wouldn’t be able to handle them anymore. There, see? —Bahamut’s turning into a right mess. And the people are changing too.”
Then, Shailince, the empress dowager of Bahamut, had perished.
Her soul fell into the Akashic Records and was sucked deeply into the dimension of retrogress. There, she would be made to pay the price of all the karma she had accumulated in life.
“She’s gonna be in so much pain. She’s killed so many innocent beings.”
But then, something that neither Laos nor Kan had ever anticipated had happened.
Taylon invaded the Akashic Records after he had finished absorbing all the dragons.
He wrapped black life around his legs and walked into the heart of the Akashic Records, which had the consistency of a cloud. He leisurely surveyed the world of souls and time that Kandemayon had showed him once long ago.
“This is my second time seeing it, but it’s still such a mysterious place.”
Taylon rather liked this gigantic world. And he wanted to become an absolute figure whom none could do anything about in this gigantic world too.
Buzzzzz…….
The souls were wary against the ominous invader even though they were unconscious. They trembled in anxiety and created an empty circle around Taylon as they avoided him.
But it had been to no avail.
Taylon took one big breath before he haphazardly began devouring the souls. The souls were polluted black once they were inside him. They screamed silently in their agony.
Taylon devoured the records that were left in the Akashic Records, and he also absorbed all of the divine power that had been flowing inside the Akashic Records in order to facilitate new birth.
Taylon was devastating the Akashic Records.
He possessed the Demon’s powers and Bahamut’s power on top of his own innate talents. He had also devoured all four dragons and had completely absorbed their souls. He was turning into an unfathomable darkness that not even Laos and Kandemayon could comprehend.
“To think he’d make it all the way here and do something like that. He’s pretty remarkable too,”
Kan mumbled in intrigue as she rested her chin in her hands and observed from afar.
“Oh…….”
The blood drained from Laos’ face as he watched from afar too. He flinched.
“Stay still, Laos.”
Kan warned him. She continued,
“I’ll have to act too if you decide to act. Our role was over after I reestablished equilibrium one final time. This world belongs to those that live in it —that’s what you said.”
“…….”
Taylon’s rampage continued.
The Balance, which dominated the Akashic Records, could not stop him. Equilibrium was the antithesis of will. The Balance was fundamentally unable to interfere with a soul’s will.
“Taylon’s actions are also the result of a will. It is neither our role nor the Balance’s role to stop him —that role must be played by yet another will.”
Laos knew this. He balled his sweaty hands into tight fists. He closed his eyes to the horrendous brutality playing out before him. He prayed that Ianna and Arhad would hurry up and do something about this. Kandemayon continued,
“We might get caught if we stay here any longer. Let’s leave.”
Kan pulled Laos away by the hand, and Laos nodded back.
But then Taylon appeared out of nowhere and blocked their way.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Taylon had already been aware of their presence. How could he not, even if they had been trying to hide? He had come to the Akashic Records to devour Kandemayon and Laos, the greater dragons, to begin with, and they had been the first things that he had sought out as soon as he had arrived.
He had started eating the souls first because neither Kandemayon nor Laos were doing anything, but things changed if they were trying to run away.
Taylon looked Kandemayon’s petite figure up and down.
“Is that your human form, Kandemayon, the Chaos Dragon?”
“This is but one of my many forms,”
Kan replied as if she couldn’t care any less before she applauded Taylon and continued,
“I am truly in awe of your colossal greed for power. I never imagined that you would ever make your way here.”
“It’s all thanks to the fact that you gave me power,”
Taylon replied with a smile that was both chilling and gentle. Then, he turned to the white colored boy standing next to Kandemayon and said,
“Standing next to you must be the ‘God Laos.’ He’s much smaller than I imagined.”
Then, he pointed at Ianna, who was in the world of progress above them.
“He looks much weaker than Dame Rise up there.”
But that was only natural. Laos had never been strong to begin with.
Laos had no jurisdiction over death. He had power over laws and promises, construction and maintenance, and lives and livelihoods. There was no way that he would possibly possess the power necessary to destroy the world.
“I suppose my final enemy will be neither the dragons nor the gods, but that woman.”
Taylon’s lips twisted. He continued,
“I’m going to have to eat you guys now.”
His colossal strength surged.
Kandemayon and Laos resisted with everything they had, but they were defeated in the end. Taylon’s strength already far surpassed theirs.
Taylon restrained Kandemayon and Laos and slowly, very slowly, began to eat them. He prioritized eating Kandemayon, who was accustomed to the power of death and still had some resistance left in her, over Laos, who had been rendered unable to move after being struck by the aura of darkness.
Kandemayon swayed limply after her soul was ripped away, but she, too, was rendered immobile quickly enough. And then, Taylon suddenly had to step out into the world because of Ianna.
“Get out of here, Laos.”
Kan pulled together every last drop of strength she had left and undid Laos’ restraints.
“Kan……. What about……?”
“It’s too late for me. Taylon has already taken the entirely of my soul. What you see here before you is nothing but a vestige. And now, I will be forced to meddle with this fight against my will yet again.”
“…….”
“There’s no helping it, now that it’s come to this. Go to Ianna, Laos. Go and meddle with the world as much as I will be meddling with the world because of Taylon.”
Kandemayon burned the last of her strength to open a door to the world outside. Laos looked back as he crawled through it.
“Kan, I……I’ll save you without fail.”
“If that’s what you want……. Oh, and one more thing.”
Kandemayon huffed one last time and smiled. She continued,
“Go and tell Ianna that I haven’t broken my promise.”
~~*~~
“……And that’s what happened.”
Elly squeezed her hands tightly together on top of the table after she was done sharing her story. Her nervousness was apparent in her squirming fingers and sweaty palms. She looked fretful as her round eyes looked between Ianna and Arhad in turns and her lips were pressed tightly together. Then, she said,
“I want to save Kandemayon and the other dragons.”
“How? Kandemayon is probably still alive, since she’s immortal, but what about the other dragons?”
Elly nodded gingerly and replied,
“Right. But Taylon ate not only their souls but their hearts too. He did that because he wanted to be able to use the full extent of their powers.”
You needed both a being’s soul and their heart in order to use 100% of their powers.
If you destroyed the heart after only stealing the soul, then the being’s power could be readily stolen from you, just like how it was with the Demon’s fragments, or the power itself was weakened. It was far more difficult to steal the heart too and take the power from a soul that was still self-aware, but the power itself would remain wholly intact.
Taylon had opted for the latter because he wanted power, and it hadn’t posed him any problems because his domination was so strong. And so, Taylon had absorbed the dragons’ hearts whole and was sharing their hearts with them, and he was presently taking their powers by exercising his powerful domination over them.
“Then, Elly… What do we need to do in order to save the dragons?”
“The dragons’ hearts are sharing with Taylon’s heart right now, and that’s where they’re trapped. They’re joined to tightly to him that they’ve practically been fused into him. We can save the dragons if we take back their hearts, imbue their hearts with their liberated souls, and create new bodies for them.”
Elly lowered her eyes and continued,
“It would require ripping out the dragons’ hearts, which Taylon has layered around his own heart like a shield, one by one.”
In other words, this meant that they needed to land five separate decisive blows on Taylon’s heart.
“It won’t be easy. But, um, Ianna…….”
“Don’t worry. I want to save the dragons too. I’ll see what I can do.”
Ianna knew what Elly was worried about.
Ianna had no duty to save the dragons, nor had she any reason to go out of her way and put herself through the trouble of saving them. Elly knew this all too well, and she was nervous and afraid that Ianna might decline.
But Ianna pitied the dragons too.
They had been trapped in place for nearly an eternity in order to maintain equilibrium. Wasn’t it too pitiful, then, they had their freedom stolen from them by Taylon so soon after they had finally been liberated? Ianna didn’t usually let it show, but she had always been uncomfortable about the dragons’ regrettable circumstances.
“Thank you.”
Elly’s visage brightened. Ianna was happy to see the change.
“What about the souls from the Akashic Records that Taylon swallowed? Were they mixed into Taylon’s soul or otherwise fused into him?”
“No.”
Elly calmly shook her head. She continued,
“Different souls can never be fused together. They can only co-exist. This is an absolute Truth that even the Balance can’t do anything about.”
“I see. Then, what’ll happen to the souls once they’re freed from Taylon?”
“I’ll carry them with me in the meanwhile, and then I’ll send them back to the Akashic Records later. I’ll also take back the world’s records that Taylon ate and restore them. You’ll help me, right?”
“Of course I’ll help you. But Elly, do you know what state the Akashic Records are in right now?”
The Akashic Records had been extremely unstable when Ianna and Taylon had left it, and they had been on the brink of collapse.
“Yes. The space between the center and the rest of spacetime was drastically reduced, so it’s become like two very large and flat pieces of paper that were folded together. Basically, the distance between them is pretty close to zero.”
“It wasn’t extinguished?”
“The Akashic Records are a dimension composed of the spacetime of progress, the spacetime of retrogress, and the spacetime of stillness at the center. The Akashic Records won’t go extinct as long as spacetime exists. The Akashic Records only shrank because the space between spacetimes contracted.”
“Why is that?”
“The records of the world are piled up in that space, and the space continues to expand as the records keep piling up. The space only contracted because Taylon took all the records away. Everything can be restored if the records are brought back.”
“I see. Very well. All right. I’ll help you with all of my sincerity.”
Ianna laced her fingers together and looked directly back at Elly. Then, she continued,
“So, what can you do? I mean…….”
It was time to ask Elly now.
“What will you do? Surely you’re not going to keep observing like you always have been until now?”
“Naturally, I’ll do everything I can until the world is restored back to its original state and Kan is freed from Taylon.”
Elly placed her hand on Nissi’s, who was sitting in her lap, back. Nissi looked up and mewed when she felt Elly’s hand trembling. It was like Nissi was cheering her on.
Elly rubbed her cheek against Nissi’s head and straightened out her shoulders.
“I’ve thought about what I need to do. First, I’ll keep assisting the aides like I always have been and develop new technology that’ll be helpful in battle. No one knows the Laws of the World better than I do, after all.”
“I’m sure that’ll prove immensely helpful.”
“Second, I’ll try my best to prevent Taylon from taking my divine power —that is, the divine power of nature.”
“Is there any way that you can stop him from using it altogether?”
“No. Divine power can always be dominated and dyed into another color, as you already know, and I’m weaker than Taylon.”
“But you’re the god of Law. Can’t you create a Law for that? Like a Law that prevents Taylon from using your divine power.”
“That’s going to be impossible because he has Kandemayon with him. Kandemayon can erase any of my Laws whenever she wants, but Taylon won’t be able to erase the Laws of the World so easily because that would require waging a mental war against me. But he’ll probably be able to neutralize any Law that affects him directly easily enough.”
“I see. So, how will you stop Taylon from taking your divine power? Are you going to restrict your divine power as much as you can?”
“Yes. And I can also give anyone the authority to use my divine power as freely as they wish.”
Then, Elly held out her hands and said,
“I will grant both of you that authority. I’m also going to create a temporary Law that’ll let you summon the spirits at will with my divine power. Starting right now.”
Shaaaaa.
Elly’s eyes were dyed with a brilliant white light, and her white divine power gathered into her outstretched hands. She began moving her fingers as if she was making something.
Creak.
It sounded like countless gears were turning from somewhere.
Ianna instantly felt an enormous change.
She felt like the immeasurable amount of divine power that was spread all throughout the world belonged to her. Like all the divine power that existed in the world would gather before her at a flick of her finger.
“I’m sure that the divine power of nature will be helpful to you.”
“……Indeed.”
Then, Elly reached out. The four elements gathered above her tiny hands like a pinwheel.
[Laos!]
The spirit kings, whom only Ianna had been able to summon until now, appeared and began clinging to Elly’s arms.
[It’s been so long!]
[How could you pretend to be a total stranger like that?]
[We really couldn’t tell that it was you.]
[You big, big, big dummy!]
The spirits had realized that Elly was Laos when they had treated her. And they had been waiting eagerly for Laos to call them again. They were warm and tender toward Elly even as they chastised her.
Elly grinned.
“Technically, it hasn’t actually been that long, but…yeah. It’s been a while. But let me get right down to business for now since the situation isn’t that great. I need your help.”
Elly asked the spirits to act as the cordon so that Taylon would no longer be able to absorb the divine power of nature as he pleased.
She did this because Taylon’s aura was completely incompatible with the spirits’ auras, and Taylon was repulsed by the spirits just as the spirits also dreaded Taylon.
[Ugh, I don’t ever want to come into contact with that bastard, but I guess there’s no helping it!]
[We’ll do our best until he’s finally gone from this world for good.]
Elly asked one more favor of the spirits as they psyched themselves up.
“Can you also go around healing anyone you find who’s been hurt by Taylon’s army? I’d like you to help people out if the battle isn’t going in their favor, and purify nature while you’re at it too.”
[That’s our specialty!]
“You have enough divine power, right?”
[More than enough. I’m pretty sure we could even go around in our true forms for no reason if we felt like it?]
[Ahh, I wish we could always go around eating our fill of divine power like this!]
Elly smiled wryly as the spirits whined.
“You can’t. You guys have a lot of restrictions on your powers because of how great they are, and there’d be a huge price to pay in order to keep this Law forever. I can effect this Law without penalty for now because Taylon is being reckless with Kan’s powers, but I need to get rid of it once Kan comes back.”
[Awww. We know.]
“Sorry.”
[Huh? Why’re you sorry? We were just complaining for the sake of complaining. We’re perfectly happy with the way things are now!]
The spirits mass a fuss about telling Elly that everything was all right when she scrambled to apologize. Elly smiled back listlessly before she turned to Ianna and said,
“Third, I’m going to gather all the souls that broke free from Taylon and put them under my protection, just like I said I would.”
“What does it mean for the souls to break free from Taylon?”
“The souls are temporarily freed when the cores of the dead are destroyed. Under normal circumstances, they’re supposed to go back to the Akashic Records immediately, but right now they’re being drawn back to Taylon because his hold is too powerful. I will bring them to me and put them under my protection before he can take them back. I’ll do my best.”
The blood began draining from Ianna’s visage. Elly continued,
“And lastly, I’m going to need to use every last drop of power I have to undo everything that Taylon does with Kandemayon’s powers.”
“What exactly can Kandemayon do?”
“Kan has the power of Chaos and Nihility. She can return everything that brings order to this world to nothingness. And, like I told you before, Taylon can even erase the Laws of the World with her powers if he wins a battle of wills against me.”
Elly sighed deeply. Then, she continued,
“Every construct and Law of this world was created after thorough calculations. Everything will become a mess if things are added to or subtracted from the formula haphazardly. I am going to immediately recreate any Law that Taylon erases. And…….”
“And?”
“Kan and I have the limited ability to obstruct the power of time from a fixed area. That means that we can decrease the total amount of time that can be used in any given area. For example, one minute inside that fixed area can be made equal to sixty minutes outside the area. We used that power to make time pass faster because we were tired of living……but it’s possible that Taylon might use that power against you in a fight. I’ll stay by your side and do my best to normalize the passage of time again, but please be mindful of this when you fight him.”
Ianna recalled how an entire week had passed when she had only been inside Kandemayon’s territory briefly.
“Is there more?”
“Kan is ‘immortal’ as long I continue to exist in this world. By immortal, I mean that her soul can maintain its ego even if she doesn’t have any divine power and that her heart, which is the container for her soul, can restore itself immediately even if it’s destroyed. Taylon probably acquired that ability too when he absorbed her. So, you’ll have to take Kan out of him first if you want to kill him.”
Ianna and Arhad listened attentively to each and every word Elly said. Arhad, in particular, had stopped participating in the conversation and was instead hard at word scribbling down words and formulas on a piece of paper. He was making new plans on the basis of the information and assistance that Elly was giving them.
“This is everything about Kan’s powers that I know and everything I can do against her.”
Ianna placed a hand over her eyes and sank down deeply into the sofa as she wondered if it was finally over.
Silence echoed inside the room for quite some time.
She brought her hand back down once she had finished organizing all the complicated information with her eyes closed.
“Elly —Laos. You.”
Ianna was very curious and alarmed. She continued,
“You’re capable of some truly incredible things.”
She was truly alarmed. Ianna hadn’t been expecting much because Elly had always acted within the confines of ‘humanity’ and had never actually displayed the full might of a god, but the Creator was truly something else.
“It just means that I have to pay that large a price.”
Elly smiled bitterly before her expression turned serious again. She continued,
“And one final thing —for real, this time. There’s something you need to keep in mind about Bahamut’s and Taylon’s powers, not just Kan’s. Were you aware that Taylon is devouring the world itself?”
“Arhad told me just earlier. But what about it?”
“Taylon is devouring the world —in other words, the ‘dimension of progress.’ Basically, this means that he’s absorbing the power of time and space too.”
This was only getting worse. Elly continued,
“Kan’s and my ability to stop time is weak at best. Neither of us can actually meddle with time itself……it’s remarkable, really. Space is one thing, but even I won’t be able to do anything about it if Taylon happens to obtain the power of time.”
“I still don’t quite understand what it means when you say that he’s devouring the world.”
“Why don’t we go outside so you can see for yourself?”
Arhad promptly snapped his fingers, and Ianna suddenly found them standing on top of rotten earth that was dyed black.
“This is a region that Taylon has partially devoured.”
Ianna prodded at the ground with her feet.
“It’s not as bad as I feared, other than the fact that the earth’s been polluted.”
“Look up at the sky, Ianna.”
Ianna looked up, just as Arhad had instructed, and she witnessed the chilling scenery she had seen a few years ago repeating itself here and there.
“There are……holes and cracks in the sky.”
The sky was blue because it was daytime.
But looking at certain areas of the blue sky made a shiver crawl down her spine. The holes of nothingness that led only to the abyss and cracks of darkness, like the cracks found in glaciers, made all her hair stand at edge. The sky looked like a broken eggshell that was falling apart.
There were neither clouds, stars, the moon, nor the sun in those spaces of nothingness.
It reminded Ianna of the sky she had seen when Terranodin had flown her to the other side of the world.
“That is an infinite ‘Nihility’ in every sense of the word. Nihility stretches endlessly outside the finite spacetime of ‘Existence.’ You can see the Nihility because Taylon absorbed the spacetime,”
Elly said anxiously as she clutched Nissi tightly to her chest like the cat was her safety doll. Nissi’s warm and soft coziness was reassuring to her.
Ianna continued staring at the sky for some time before she quietly said,
“My head hurts, but I know for certain now.”
“What do you mean?”
“Taylon needs to be eliminated as quickly as possible.”
Ianna’s voice was deathly calm as she mumbled. She continued,
“And I know for certain that our next fight will be our last.”
Taylon had truly gone as far as he could possibly go. He had climbed up as far as gluttony could take him. He was strong enough that he could even eat time and space itself now, and Ianna acknowledged that.
And yet…….
‘I still don’t think that I’ll lose.’
Was it blind faith? Was it arrogance?
No —this was certainty.
‘Not that it’ll be an easy victory, of course.’
Taylon caught up using unbelievable means whenever she thought that she had the advantage. Taylon was devouring the world like crazy to keep up with Ianna as she grew stronger.
But their difference in limit was as clear and night and day.
Taylon climbed higher via gluttony, by devouring that which already existed in the world, but Ianna soared ever higher and higher by using her psychological foundation to polish her wings and Rend into infinity, where nothing existed.
‘I’m sure you’re aware of it too. There’s nothing left for you to eat after you’re done eating spacetime.’
Beyond spacetime was only the infinite nothingness. There was nothing more that Taylon could eat to grow stronger because nothing existed.
‘Not that I’m going to let you devour spacetime to begin with.’
There were only two ways by which Taylon could grow stronger than Ianna now.
Either he stuck to his guns and somehow managed to devour Ianna.
Or he did what Ianna did, and he polished himself and grew stronger through endless perseverance and fiery effort.
He would probably elect the latter because the former was impossible for him, but Ianna was confident that she would come second to none when it came to perseverance and effort. Taylon should know this very well too. Ianna would emerge as the ultimate victor if they continued to fight.
Taylon’s only choice was to devour the world as quickly as he could and defeat Ianna before it was too late.
They hadn’t been able to decide a victor between them all this time, which meant that their next battle would not end until one of them emerged victorious.
The end was coming.
The coldness that the words, ‘the end’ gave off felt like they were freezing Ianna’s peripheral nerves.
Then, warmth touched her freezing fingers. Ianna slowly looked up and found Arhad at the end of her gaze.
“Let’s do our best until the end.”
The end. The end. The end.
All things had an ending.
But there were still things that would surely never end even if the end existed. If there existed something that would never end until one being died, then would that not in itself be eternity, the ultimate Truth that resulted as a fusion between finite Existence and infinite Nihility?
For Ianna, that something was Arhad’s love.
A smile graced her lips.
“Yes.”
There was an eternal love inside her heart. His love was the kindling that ignited the flames that would never extinguish.
Infinity filled Ianna’s eyes.
~~*~~
They had finished checking their information, analyzing the problem, and establishing a solution.
Now, the only thing left to do was for everyone to do the best they could in the roles they were given.
Elly was hard at work doing the things she had promised Ianna that she would do.
Her only outwardly visible effort was in developing new technology.
Elly used her Laws as her foundation to create new technologies that were better and more advanced than anything else that currently existed. There was a fuss inside Ex-knights because of the birth of an unprecedented genius.
“Miss Saki’s been helping me a lot.”
Eiji and Saki had witnessed Elly’s true form on the day they had discovered her. Eiji hadn’t realized who Elly truly was at first and was only astonished after Herrace had told him after the fact, but Saki, who was a priestess of the Faith of Laos, had recognized Elly’s true identity immediately.
Saki had volunteered to nurse and aide Elly ever since.
“Why do you do nothing but watch, God Laos?!”
“Please save us!”
The people had quickly begun wailing as they sought after Laos. The temples of Laos were always packed with chaotic crowds. The people threw themselves before the altars and prayed as if prayer was all that was needed to resolve the situation, and they prayed for days……as they begged for Laos to descend even as they themselves gradually became as skinny as sticks.
The sky was disappearing. The dead were coming back reanimated.
They had no choice but to turn to a god because things that ought not to happen were happening in the world.
Moreover, Laos was a ‘real being’ who had actually existed in the flesh and not some kind of ethereal superstition. The people believed that their god was still alive somewhere.
But Laos never showed himself before them no matter how many days had passed.
Laos did not show himself even as dozens, hundreds, and thousands died.
“God, o God…….”
Elly did not reveal the fact that she was Laos himself no matter how much the people wailed. After all, the people would only grow dependent on her if she revealed herself.
And Elly did not want for that to happen.
“God Laos doesn’t exist in this world!”
And that was why she closed her eyes and covered her ears even when the people began resenting their god and denying his existence.
Some people claimed that it was by the grace of god that the spirits had suddenly started being able to use the divine power of nature as they pleased. But the spirits kept their silence as per Elly’s request, and Eiji twisted the facts and spread misinformation to the masses.
The spirits were temporarily able to use the divine power of nature freely. But this was because the spirit kings pitied the crumbling world and was gnawing away their own willpower in order to do so. And so, the truth was skillfully obscured.
“Prayer won’t solve anything!”
“Has God Laos ever stepped down to help no matter how hard things got before? I always had to make do with my own strength!”
People began leaving the temples once they realized that their god was not answering. One person became two, and two became four.
They needed to survive this peril on their own. And so, the people eventually stopped relying on an absolute god and started to see reality for what it was.
“Are you really going to do nothing but watch, Elly?”
“This is the right thing to do, Lady Saki. People must be responsible for their own lives instead of depending on someone else. And they need to realize that they need to put in the hard work themselves if they want to survive danger.”
Saki regretted the situation, but Elly replied firmly as if this was only the obvious answer.
“But Elly, the people still need a final bastion —a psychological pillar of support. That is the role that religion plays.”
“Yes. But a god’s only role must be as a ‘psychological pillar of support.’ That role must end after providing rest in the form of religion. People must only look to divine miracles as the very last option after they’ve exhausted everything and anything else that they can do themselves. After all, such miracles will never come to pass.”
“…….”
“People must look to reality and not to a god.”
Elly was firm, and, though wistful, Saki understood. Then, Elly asked,
“Are you disappointed?”
“No. I fully agree with everything you’ve said.”
Saki bowed her head courteously and continued,
“After all, your words are my truth.”
“Saki, you are remarkable enough that you don’t need to follow me. Have you ever thought about leaving religion behind to live your own life?”
“I turned to religion because I was deeply moved by your words. I believe in you and follow you just as Lord Eiji follows Lady Ianna. I am your faithful servant, and I will spread your wish all across the world.”
“I see. Thank you.”
Elly smiled faintly.
Thus, the people who had decided to face reality took interest in the many measures that Arhad had taken before things had taken a turn for the worse. The measures that Arhad had implemented after thorough calculation proved immensely helpful in this surreal fight.
“Miss.”
Elly began calling Ianna ‘Miss’ once more. And she also gave Ianna additional information. She said,
“Taylon absorbed Isabella. He absorbed her soul and heart whole. In the same way that he absorbed the dragons.”
No wonder no one had seen neither hair nor hide of Isabella since that day.
“Isabella’s ego remains relatively free inside of Taylon. She’s helping him by suppressing and controlling everything that he’s devoured so far.”
Then, Elly warned,
“Taylon was only able to devour spacetime because he shares Arhad’s heart and Bahamut’s blood has become whole again after he absorbed Isabella. Bahamut’s power is to grow stronger by eating, evolving, and eating something even bigger. Taylon has managed to make even that power his own. Please be careful.”
“Thanks for telling me this.”
Ianna was completely calm.
She had learned a lot of things after fighting Taylon.
She needed an adamantine conviction and level-headed rationality that would never crumble when she fought Taylon. She must keep herself under control using her conviction and rationality no matter how he attacked her.
She had allowed herself to be blinded in her bloodlust for Taylon in their last fight. She had paid for her mistake by allowing Taylon to survive and having her body crumble apart. She had only survived with Arhad’s help.
‘I mustn’t let that happen again.’
Ianna reflected as she started training in seclusion once more.
There was a violent greed to climb upward lurking inside her. Her greed held the reins, and her rationality controlled the direction and speed.
Her greed and rationality co-existed and hurled her ever upward to greater heights.
Ianna did not stop them.
And she did not need much time to grow even stronger.
Meanwhile, Eiji and the intelligence bureau had been gathering information from throughout the entire continent.
The Bahamut Empire had essentially been split into two, according to the information that had been collected.
Taylon had enacted a large-scale purge after he had sealed off Takalon, and only those nobles who genuinely followed the Bahamut imperial family had survived.
The Revolution Army grew by the day. Karnitz and Isphee had brought decent mid-ranking nobles who shared their sentiments with them as they fled, and the nobles had also joined the Revolution Army with their forces.
Many of the rural nobles, who had been maintaining their neutrality until then, began turning their backs on the imperial family en masse after Taylon had begun leading the army of the dead.
Special agents like Lalatua and Taro were still distributing stimulants and inducing agents among the Bahamut army, and many Bahamut soldiers had returned to their full senses, doubted their cause, and were deserting.
In other words, the Bahamut Empire had been split in half between the Bahamut army and the Revolution Army.
Dorcianni was focusing on locating Taylon.
“This is hard.”
Taylon’s whereabouts had multiplied into the dozens and was appearing all over the world. After all, the dead’s souls had been corrupted by Taylon, and their bodies had been created by Taylon’s polluted divine power. In other words, they reeked of Taylon’s aura.
This made it impossible to determine Taylon’s exact location. There were several areas where his aura had manifested very strongly, but no one could say for certain if any one of them was actually him.
But this could also be used to their advantage…….
They knew exactly where the dead were.
A magical map that detailed where the dead were located had been completed by the time Ianna had finished her training and left her training grounds.
She cut through the wide corridor with large strides. The red carpet that stretched all the way to the conference room, her destination, was perfectly straightened and did not have so much as a wrinkle. It reminded her of the road that she was soon about to run without even pausing to catch her breath.
Creak.
Ianna opened the door.
Arhad was already seated at the round table inside the conference room. Schneider and Angelina had come from Roanne and were sitting next to him, and they smiled quietly as they bid Ianna hello.
Arhad raised his hand and pointed at the crystal ball at the center of the table as soon as Ianna took her seat. The crystal ball glowed faintly, and then magical images of various people’s faces were shown above the other seats at the table.
They were the leaders of the kingdoms who had allied with Ex-knights and Roanne.
“We will now begin the conference.”
Everyone turned to Arhad, and then they looked to Ianna sitting beside him.
Ex-knights and Roanne were leading most of the war efforts —with Ex-knights in the East and Southeast and Roanne in the South and Southwest. The rest of the alliance had only survived this long because of Ex-knights’ and Roanne’s support and guidance.
Accordingly, Arhad and Schneider had always been the leading characters of the alliance’s conferences for the past year, but things were different today.
Ianna was awake now.
The leaders stared at Ianna through the magic. They hadn’t seen her in a very long time, but she was emitting such an intense feeling of pressure that they couldn’t help but cower even though they were only meeting her through magic. She was young, but her youth did nothing to defect from her strength. Ianna was strong. That was simply all there was to it.
The leaders’ eyes filled with hope when they realized that Ianna was not only in excellent health but also looked significantly stronger than she had before.
“…….”
Ianna carefully studied each and every face she saw through the magical screens. Everyone looked exhausted.
A war against powerful and terrifying enemies, and an unstable world that seemed like it could collapse at any given moment.
It was no wonder that the leaders were exhausted.
But their most difficult ordeal was the fact that they were so weak compared to their enemies that they could do nothing but struggle their hardest just to survive and the despair they felt because they didn’t know when the war would end even if they did somehow miraculously manage to survive.
Ianna sympathized with them. But they would have to cast those emotions aside now. There were things that they, too, needed to accomplish in order for this war to end.
“We have information to share with all of you today.”
Arhad then gave a brief summary of the continent’s current situation, though only to the extent that people would be able to comprehend.
The identities of the army of the dead, the things that Taylon was up to…….
He would never be able to finish if he had to explain everything in detail. He wouldn’t be able to finish explaining how Ianna had grown so powerful or how Taylon was able to literally eat the world itself and raise the dead even if he spoke for three days straight, and the others wouldn’t be able to understand what he was talking about even if he did.
But no one questioned the vagueness of his explanations. They only wanted to know the clear and understandable solution that Arhad was about to present.
“Taylon will no longer be able to raise the dead, and spirits will lend us their aid. We will be able to restore the ruined world once we’ve granted the dead repose and defeated Taylon.”
Arhad had explained away the parts of the story that were difficult to explain by saying that everything was possible because of the ‘holy relics’ of the Faith of Laos. This did not pose any problem at all because only Ianna and a select few other individuals knew what the relics really were and what was really going on. The rest of the people were awed and simply thought that this was their god’s last gift to them.
“And that is why everyone here must work together. We must return the dead to the afterlife.”
Arhad spread out a map that Dorcianni had prepared across the table. Countless dots were wriggling on top of the map. Arhad continued,
“This map marks the location of the dead. The dead are fueled by Taylon’s power, and granting them repose will make Taylon weaker. We will send each nation a copy of this map, so please do your best to return the dead to whence they came.”
The leaders of each country studied the map attentively.
The army of the dead was fundamentally slow and sluggish. After a few battles, they had learned that the dead were filled with bloodlust and a hatred for the living, but they had very limited intelligence. The other countries were perfectly capable of fending the dead off.
[Very well.]
[So we can finally do our part in this war too.]
The leaders found strength in the fact that they no longer had to simply struggle to survive but could finally step out onto the battlefields as warriors for the purpose of putting the war to an end.
“Some of the dots are darker than the others.”
The greyish dots varied in intensity, like ink smears, but some of them shined blacker than the rest. Arhad pointed at them and continued,
“Taylon might be at these locations. Dame Rise and her Knights of Rise will go to these places. Also, Taylon will likely show up eventually as we continue to eliminate the dead, and Dame Rise will take the vanguard when he does.”
The leaders, who had been looking at the map, turned their gazes to Ianna. Silence fell upon them for a moment before someone, with heavy words, asked,
[Are you confident that you can defeat the Bahamut emperor, Dame Rise?]
They had wondered if the fighting was finally over when they had heard the rumors that Ianna had beaten Taylon back. And yet, Taylon had armed himself with an even greater power and had reentered the fray.
“I cannot say anything for certain because I don’t know strong he is currently. But I can assure you that I will not lose.”
Ianna looked each and every leader in the eyes as she boldly continued,
“So, please support me so I can focus on my battle with Taylon and emerge victorious.”
The leaders nodded back vigorously as if they were asking Ianna to trust them.
[We will fight as best as we can.]
[Please do your best too, Dame Rise.]
Everyone’s will to do battle was set ablaze by the time the conference had concluded. Schneider sighed while looking like was both laughing and crying once the light of the crystal ball had gone out.
“I pray, more so than any other, that this battle will be the last.”
Roanne had been responsible for keeping the peace in the continent ever since Ex-knights had huddled into herself. Schneider was undoubtedly extraordinarily skilled, but this had still been an extremely difficult responsibility to bear.
“Leave the fight against the dead to your subordinates while you and the princess focus on our final battle against Taylon. The two of you will likely have to join me on the battlefield.”
Arhad handed Schneider a thin packet of paper. Schneider looked intrigued as he accepted it and began flipping through the pages.
“Is this the technology you mentioned previously?”
“Yes.”
The royal family of Roanne were both Laos’ spartoi and his Guardians. This made them the strongest after Ianna and Arhad, so the battle would progress more smoothly with their help. Arhad explained his plans as he assigned the royal family of Roanne their respective roles.
“Hmmm…….”
Schneider was inwardly astonished and somewhat envious as he read about the principles behind the new technology that Arhad had devised. He continued,
“I’ll have to train hard. But I’ll try to come up with some battle tactics of my own too, since it hurts my pride to always be taking orders from you.”
His envy took a positive spin and transcended into competitiveness.
There was also an explanation of battle strategies included inside the packet. Schneider looked up and turned to Ianna once he had finished reading it.
“So the strategy is to leave the offense to Dame Rise and for the rest of us to share the responsibility equally with regard to everything else.”
“It’s the most effective way to go about it.”
“I see. This is only possible because it’s Dame Rise we’re talking about.”
Schneider smiled a little before he stood up. Then, he continued,
“Then we mustn’t keep wasting time here. Let’s be off, Angelina.”
“Yes, Lord Brother.”
Angelina had become an important pillar of Roanne’s military might, and she often accompanied Schneider to important meetings in Queen Lilith’s, who was busy looking after their people, place.
Angelina snuck a quick glance at Ianna before she quickly walked up the latter and hugged her tight.
“You’re always standing in front of me.”
Angelina recalled how she had run after Ianna’s back in the Institution’s training grounds back when the world had still been peaceful. She felt like she was still busily chasing after Ianna, who was always on the frontlines, and like she could never manage to stand by Ianna’s side, just like back then. Angelina continued,
“I’m going to do my best too. I’m going to do everything in my power to share some of the burden you carry.”
Ianna hugged Angelina back. Angelina had already been firmly planted in Ianna’s heart.
“Let’s work hard together, Angelina.”
Angelina understood how Ianna saw her when she heard Ianna say, ‘together,’ and smiled. She was no longer just chasing after Ianna from behind. She was finally standing next to Ianna.
“I’m always so happy to hear you say that.”
Angelina squeezed Ianna one more time before she pulled free from their embrace.
The conference had concluded, and Ianna visited the knight orders’ training grounds for the first time in a very long while.
Specifically, she sought out the ‘Knights of Rise,’ which was the strongest knight order in Ex-knights and could be called Ianna’s personal knight order.
The Knights of Rise had unique circumstances.
Swordsmen, in particular, held honorary positions in the knight order, and the members were divided up into smaller knight orders. Anyone who scored highly on the periodically held Rise exams could join the Knights of Rise.
Ianna regularly gave guidance to anyone who joined the Knights of Rise. There were plenty of swordsmen who would’ve wanted to join the Knights of Rise even if it wasn’t the so-called ‘strongest knight order.’
The Knights of Rise grew rapidly stronger after being personally taught by Ianna, the strongest swordswoman, on top of the talent they already possessed and the hard work they were putting in, and they would eventually become permanent members of the knight order.
Ryan was the vice-captain.
Ryan was amicable and had no enemies, he had the leadership skills to easily control anyone who acted out, he was faithful and magnanimous, and he had a sharp yet delicate gaze…….
His merits had stood out even back in his days at the Institution, and they had only grown exponentially as he served not only as the young commander of the human army but also as the vice-captain of the Knights of Rise. He had been officially designated as the vice-captain because he was universally liked by everyone in the knight order.
There were also exceptionally skilled knights who were not a part of the Knights of Rise, such as the other Swordsmanship Department elites like Herrace, those who were innately strong like Benita Falcon and the rest of the members of the First Knight Order, and also individuals from the other knight orders.
The Knights of Rise sincerely respected and followed Ianna, their captain. Each member had unique and distinct personalities, but they were all the same in that they revered strength.
The Knights of Rise undertook the most dangerous missions under Ianna’s command, but this had never posed a problem to them. And it would not pose a problem this time either.
The knights stared up at Ianna like she was blinding as she stood on the platform. Ianna also looked back at each and every knight in turn. She felt a little sorry when she saw the envy in their eyes.
To be honest, Ianna had all but neglected the Knights of Rise except for their periodic trainings.
She had undertaken a personal mission in Bahamut as soon as the Kingdom of Ex-knights had been founded, and then she had been chasing down Isabella and Shailince as soon as she had finished her mission. Then, she had fallen asleep for a year after that, and she had been devoted herself to her personal training once she had awoken.
Meanwhile, the Knights of Rise had been conducting their regular trainings under Ryan, their captain by proxy. They had never actually conducted a mission with Ianna, their true captain, before.
But that would change as of today.
“As of this moment, all of you will be accompanying me as the Knights of Rise until the day this war ends.”
The knights’ eyes began sparkling as Ianna proclaimed. She continued,
“You will wander the hellish battlefields with me every day from the moment you wake up to the moment you fall asleep. You will fight until you lose your minds, and you will train until you drop from exhaustion on any days in which you aren’t fighting.”
Ianna felt bad about telling them to go to hell as soon as they began accompanying her, but there was little she could do about it.
“Ahh…….”
Most of the knights were shaken. They were shaken not because they harbored negative thoughts but rather because they were so excited and overjoyed. They couldn’t cheer just yet because Ianna wasn’t done speaking, but there were even some knights who were so aroused they were practically steaming from the nostrils.
Ianna realized that she had been mistaken as they expressed their cries of ‘Yes!’ with their eyes, their gestures, and their spirit.
Each and every person present had an extraordinary desire to rise up. They each had different destinations in mind, but in general they were all crazy about growing stronger like Ianna was. There was no hardship that they would turn away from if it meant that they could grow stronger.
Ianna brushed aside all her guilt and smiled.
“Let us repel our enemies with our swords.”
The knights’ morale soared beneath the platform. Ianna continued,
“Let us protect Ex-knights and all who are dear to us with our strength.”
The knights clutched tightly to the swords that were dangling at their waists. They may all be insane for power, but they were also proud of Ex-knights, where they had laid their roots, and they loved the kingdom where their loved ones lived.
Slam!
Ianna drew Rise and struck it into the floor below. Then, she placed her hands on Rise’s hilt as she glared at the darkness that covered the far reaches of the skies.
“Onward!”
~~*~~
News of the current situation spread to every corner of the world after the conference.
And the opinions of those who had been fighting only to survive gradually began to change.
“We’re not killing the dead again —we’re returning them to where they’re supposed to be.”
“Is that why the dead always disappear into a beautiful light?”
Their battle against the dead wasn’t just meaningless slaughter but a sacred calling to send back the deceased who had been dragged away from their repose.
“They say that the Bahamut emperor is destroying the world. But we can restore it as long as don’t lose hope and do everything in our power to help stop him. Apparently, the fractures in the sky will return to normal too.”
The understanding that they were not simply powerless before the strong and merciless Taylon but that even they could do something, no matter how small, became their drive.
“Let’s fight!”
“Don’t give up!”
The hope that this tedious fighting would finally end if they didn’t give up and kept working hard set their battle spirit ablaze. These positive feelings gave the people newfound strength.
And this change was present not only in the average civilian but also in the leaders of their nations.
“We’ll take charge here. After some scouting, we believe that we are more than capable of handling this alone.”
The leaders of other nations began their assault based on the map that Dorcianni had created.
The conference had concluded with the understanding that Ex-knights and Roanne would take care of any locations where powerful enemies were present while the smaller kingdoms would handle everything else, and there were no disputes about how their respective responsibilities and targets would be divided.
“I will never bring up another war ever again until the day I die as long as this war finally ends.”
The leaders of the countries were exhausted by the never-ending war, and they declared that they would never wage war again for the rest of their lives.
Naturally, these brave promises weren’t made just because they were exhausted from the fighting. There was no point in fighting amongst themselves in this tiny stretch of land if they considered the vast expanse of wilderness beyond the continent. It was foolish to fight over the comparatively small continent when all they had to do to gain more ground was to plant their flags in ownerless territory.
Besides, who had the time to wage wars when there were so many other things to do, such as restoring the ruined systemic order in their nation or developing new technologies in order to adapt to the new world?
“If only Taylon wasn’t here anymore…….”
“If that bastard would just disappear…….”
The world needed to close the curtains on the old generation and move forward with the new. Taylon was the final obstacle blocking that path. The entire world planned to brave the infinite future as soon as Taylon was gone.
To pioneer new lands and develop new forces.
To new opportunities!
The old order, centered around two powerful nations —Roanne and Bahamut— was long over, and the opportunity to leap out of stagnant waters existed beyond the obstacle that was Taylon.
“Take heart!”
The people cheered each other on as they worked hard to bring the war to an end. Combatants fought with their full might, the spirits lingered by their sides and helped them so they wouldn’t perish, and blacksmiths who knew how to temper steel forged sharp weapons and sturdy shields to protect them.
Those who knew how to weave mended ripped clothing, and those with an aptitude for construction work rebuilt toppled ramparts. Those who knew how to tend to plants cultivated flowers and trees, and minstrels with beautiful voices sang to sooth the people’s devastated hearts.
Everyone was doing what they could. And they burned in their drive to survive to see the future no matter what.
The fissured sky, the hordes of monsters, and the walking dead.
Incomprehensible and difficult to resolve dangers blinded the people’s eyes in darkness, but they did not despair.
They felt fear whenever they looked up at the fractured sky, but they quickly moved their hands to brush their fears away. Their elevated spirits refused to yield even as the hordes of the dead descended upon them.
They would have despaired if darkness was the only thing before them, of course.
But there was undeniably a road to banish the darkness prepared ahead of them as well. A shield to defend them from the terrifying and absolute being known as Taylon, and a sword to cut him down.
Hope became as a brilliant light to slice through the darkness of despair.
And so, the people’s drive gained momentum as time passed, contrary to a certain someone’s wishes.
~~*~~
At a medical relief station in the outskirts of Roanne.
“There’s no end to them!”
Sienne, the person in charge of the station, shouted as she stabbed one of the dead’s cores with her lance.
Pow!
A small explosion burst out from the tip of the lance’s blade and shattered the core.
“Ahhhh…….”
The dead’s sharp claws suddenly stopped rushing toward Sienne and fell listlessly downward.
‘One, two, three, four, five.’
Sienne’s eyes spun in a semi-circle and glinted sharply behind the hole in her helmet as she quickly scanned her surroundings. The lance she was holding tightly in her hands moved at the speed of light.
Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow!
“Sighhhh…….”
The dead, whose cores that Sienne just destroyed, let out a long sigh.
The dead always wore an expression of incredible hatred and bloodlust whenever Sienne faced them. But they looked exhausted whenever Sienne destroyed their cores, and they looked relieved as they closed their eyes. Sienne’s heart ached whenever she witnessed this.
Quietly, she mumbled,
“Rest in peace.”
Swooooosh.
The dead transformed into a sparkling white light starting from their chests. The sparkling, flickering light seemed to flow away to somewhere before it vanished completely within the span of a few blinks.
Sienne took a deep breath and turned around.
“Growllll…….”
There were still so many dead whom she had to rescue from their agony.
Sienne bit down hard at her lip. The medical relief station was a place where those who had been wounded on the battlefield were gathered to be treated. The spirits all throughout the world treated anyone wounded they chanced across on the battlefields, but the spirits were more effective when they were farther away they were from the dead, so each country had set up medical relief stations here and there to assist with the treatment efforts.
But lifeforce was concentrated in the medical relief stations because it was needed for treatment, which turned them into a target for the dead and the monsters who craved life. Moreover, the medical relief stations could not be too far away from the battlefields since they needed to be close enough to bring over the wounded. There was a tacit understanding that medical facilities would remain untouched even through it was normal for people to kill and be killed in warfare, but the dead and the monsters did not share this understanding.
And so, some medical relief stations found themselves in the heat of battle, such as the station that Sienne was in charge of.
‘But there are only weaker armies in the area…….’
She had let her guard down. They were located in an area of Roanne where their enemies did not attack as frequently and the defenses were not as good because not many people lived there. But they had suddenly been attacked by powerful foes, and the Allied Forces who had been guarding the medical relief station had fallen quickly.
Sienne saw one of her men running over to her with ragged breath just then.
“Lady Sienne! After checking the maps, it was confirmed that a powerful army of the dead is coming this way. The main force said that they would send us reinforcements as quickly as they can. There’s also a knight order from Allied Forces stationed nearby.”
“Really?”
Sienne’s face brightened. Then, she muttered,
“Please —please hurry.”
She was anxious even though she had heard back just moments ago. Every second of every minute felt like an entire year. Fear seemed to inundate her every time she saw one of her allied soldiers fall.
‘No. There’s nothing to fret about, Sienne. They said they were coming, so don’t be afraid and do everything you can to survive.’
The reinforcements would come as promised. She had to do everything in her power to survive instead of allowing herself to be devoured and rendered powerless by terror. The reinforcements had said they were coming, so she had to trust them and stand her ground. Thus was the creed that the organization she was affiliated with believed in.
“Reinforcements are on their way, everyone!”
Sienne shouted so loud her throat might burst. She continued,
“We can survive if we fight and struggle! Don’t turn your backs because you’re afraid! Hold your ground! The wounded and everyone else inside the station will die if we fall!”
“Yes ma’am!”
Most of the soldiers at the medical relief station were Sienne’s subordinates, and they began struggling desperately at Sienne’s orders.
“Over there! Lady Sienne, it’s a mon……!”
Sienne, who had been busy out of her mind fighting, whipped her head around when she realized that her subordinate’s voice was growing quieter. Her subordinate was still shouting. But she couldn’t hear him anymore.
She looked to where her subordinate was pointing in terror. And then the blood drained from her face.
She had heard that there was always at least one monster mixed into a particularly powerful army of the dead.
It wasn’t your typical monster, and it wasn’t the darkness of night either, but a very bizarre black creature. The monster had dozens and hundreds of eyes to seek, hands to grab, and mouths to devour their prey. It sucked in even time and space as it devoured everything that existed in the world. Sienne couldn’t hear anything from her surroundings —as if the monster had devoured all the sound too.
The monster, which she had only heard tales about before, dyed the world in darkness as it approached from afar.
‘W-what in the world?’
Sienne trembled like a leaf. She couldn’t hear anything, as if she had suddenly gone deaf. An instinctive terror skewered her from head to toe. Tears began welling in her eyes.
‘Pull yourself together, Sienne! You can survive this. Reinforcements are on the way. We only need to endure a little longer. We can survive this if we take some distance.’
The darkness was encroaching at horrific speeds. But Sienne clutched tightly to her lance and ran forward. She had no choice but to act because sound wasn’t being transferred. She smacked her soldiers, whose legs had given out from under them in their terror, and dragged them backward.
Sienne refused to give up even as the darkness was right on her heels, and she fled with any of her subordinates who had also managed to pull themselves together. One of the hundreds of arms belonging to the encroaching darkness stretched out to her. But it did not reach her.
Sienne stopped running, and then she saw that her shadow was stretched out in front of her. She couldn’t help but turn around.
And she saw the glow of sunrise coming up from the distant horizon and pushing the darkness away.
A long, thin, horizontal crimson ray of light, the source of the glow, was rushing closer.
Pooooow!
The ray of light bisected the monster in one blow and slew the army of the dead that had been threatening Sienne and her subordinates.
The monster, which hadn’t died even after being bisected, glared at the source of the light with its many glistening eyes. Sienne’s legs gave out from under her when she saw dozens of its eyes turning to just one direction.
Baaaaam!
Hundreds of crimson rays of light erupted like a crimson flower and exploded against the monster.
Sienne thought she might go blind. She couldn’t see anything because her entire world had gone white.
“I’m alive.”
She couldn’t see anything, but she could hear.
She was relieved, and then she began crying tears of joy. After all, she knew very well to whom that crimson aura she had witnessed belonged.
Her whitened vision slowly returned to normal.
“Haaah!”
The knights who had appeared alongside the light were brandishing the swords in their hands with everything they had. They were wearing simple black armor as they sent the dead back to where they belonged.
“It’s the Knights of Rise…….”
Sienne, who had identified the order to which the knights belonged as soon as she saw their armor, suddenly realized that someone was standing next to her and flinched. She slowly looked up.
“Are you Sienne, the person in charge of this medical relief station?”
Red eyes more intense than the flames of the sun, and short red air that fluttered like the light itself. A voice that was composed yet infinitely reliable.
Sienne saw the girl whom she had met a few years prior in the knight standing before her and threw off her helmet as she jumped up to her feet. Her disheveled brown hair tumbled out.
“Y-yes, that’s me, Lady Ianna!”
Sienne looked back at Ianna with sparkles in her eyes when Ianna stopped in her tracks. Then, she continued,
“Uh, um……. I know this is sudden……but we’ve actually met before. I’ve always wanted to say thank you again if I ever got the chance.”
Ianna stared piercingly into Sienne’s face. But Ianna didn’t recognize her.
“You saved us about five years ago.”
It wasn’t only Sienne now —her subordinates were also staring at Ianna with envy in their eyes.
‘Five years ago…….’
Ianna was a little confused about the passage of time. She had experienced several things that had happened beyond the bounds of time, so it was hard for her to recall anything just by rummaging through her memories.
“That was when we were first-years at the Institution, Captain,”
said Herrace, who had just so happened to be nearby just then.
“…….”
Ianna tried to recall everything that had happened during her first year at the Institution at Herrace’s prompting, but she didn’t particularly remember saving anyone because she had still been lying low at that time.
“We met you during the Black Fox’s special slave auction,”
Sienne said with a smile when she realized that Ianna was having trouble remembering.
“Oh. That time…….”
Ianna remembered it now that Sienne had pinpointed the exact incident. It was they day that she had first encountered Arhad as the master of Camastros. It was also the day that she had promised Chendelf, who had fallen into despair after losing his hands, that she would escort him back to Karankell.
She had decided to also release the people who had been imprisoned alongside Chendelf while she was helping the dwarf anyway. She would have never remembered doing it if Sienne hadn’t specifically pointed it out because it had been so trivial to her in comparison to what had happened with Arhad and Chendelf that day.
“I was one of the women who asked you to save us, to not leave us behind, and to please take us with you if you were going to leave.”
Sienne grabbed her lance tightly with both of her hands. Then, she continued,
“You told us to stay put and wait, that we would be safe, and that you’d come back for us without fail. You kept your promise, and you delivered us from hell.”
Ianna began remembering everything that had happened back then as Sienne spoke.
“The full moon and your retreating figure we saw that day left a lasting impression on me.”
I wanted to grow stronger, just like you. I wanted to grow stronger so that I’d never have to go through anything like that ever again. And if someone else is in trouble, I wanted to be able to save them just like how you saved me.
That’s why I began training —my goal was to become stronger, just like you. You were so much stronger than me even though you were so much younger, so why on earth shouldn’t I be able to grow stronger too?
“Though I’d never realized even in my dreams back then that I’d have an aptitude for the lance.”
Sienne chuckled.
Ianna looked to the sturdy armor Sienne was wearing and the long lance in her hands. Her gaze started from the lance’s sharpened blade and fell down along the shaft until it stopped at Sienne’s callous-filled hands.
Sienne had been fighting harder than the rest when Ianna had seen her from afar. She had also encouraged everyone else and had led them well as she skillfully continued the battle. The medical relief station would have been reduced to ashes long before Ianna had arrived had Sienne not been here.
Ianna found it difficult to imagine the people who had clung to her and begged her to save them five years ago when she looked to Sienne. It was simply a testament to how hard Sienne had worked.
Sienne had Roanne’s insignia etched onto the left side of her chest armor.
“Are you a soldier of Roanne now?”
“No. I’m a member of a private organization, but we decided to take orders from Roanne and run medical relief stations until the war is over.”
“A private organization?”
Sienne grew excited when Ianna, the target of her envy, took interest in her and clasped her hand over the shoulder of the subordinate who was standing next to her. She continued,
“The people you rescued that day came together and formed our own organization. It wasn’t too difficult, considering that a lot of skilled people had been kidnapped for the Black Fox’s special auction that day.”
Sienne fervently explained what her organization had been up to, as if Ianna was her superior officer and she was submitting a report.
Sienne’s organization mainly focused on freeing slaves and rehabilitating them back into society, but they also quietly provided assistance to anyone who had faced hardships because of underground organizations like the Black Fox.
They had also played a big role in spreading good rumors about Ianna.
Ianna was a rare swordswoman with crimson hair, so it didn’t take long for them to identify her once they began asking around. They sang Ianna’s praises everywhere they went, and they grew genuinely angry and refuted it whenever anyone slandered her.
Moreover, they had vigorously defended Camastros when Camastros had been made a scapegoat while Ianna had joined the organization to fight the Black Fox, and they had assisted in the fight against the Black Fox as well.
“His Majesty Schneider is a very fair ruler, and we were able to focus on people who were going through difficult times when the state began supporting us after His Majesty abolished slavery. We’ve been making a name for ourselves as a large charity organization.”
“You’ve been doing good work.”
Delight stole Sienne’s breath away when Ianna acknowledged her efforts.
“All of this —this was only possible because you saved us that day, Lady Ianna.”
The people standing around Sienne quickly nodded in concurrence.
“I’m fairly certain that I said something similar to you back then, too. The only thing I did was to deliver you from that place. Everything that you accomplished afterward was solely due to your own efforts —I played no part in it.”
Ianna, who had essentially bullied these people as they shivered in fear when she rescued them back then, felt awkward as they gave her their fervent gratitude.
“We would have been sold as slaves and left to a horrible fate if not for you that day, Lady Ianna. You could’ve decided that we weren’t worth the trouble and simply left us behind. But you didn’t, and you brought us out to safety instead. We will never forget the moon we saw that night.”
Sienne’s eyes were shining as she looked back at Ianna. She continued,
“We might’ve been able to escape on our own devices, but we never would have been able to decide to start helping others if you’d simply left us there after we were hurt by the Black Fox. We would have been wary of everyone and avoided people because we were too scared.”
But we were able to regain our will to do good because you saved us. We were able to learn to trust people again.
“Back then, you told us to forget about you because you hadn’t done anything when we said that we wanted to return the favor.”
But how could we possibly forget? You’re our hero, and that day when you saved us became the turning point of our lives.
“We wanted to return the favor, but you were growing greater by the day and there wasn’t anything we could do for you. So we decided to live while working our hardest instead. And one day, if the chance presented itself, we wanted to be able to say thank you.”
Sienne and the people standing behind her bowed to Ianna from their waists.
“Thank you!”
Sienne smiled brightly once she had straightened herself back out.
“It always brings us great joy to hear about what you’ve been up to, Lady Ianna. And you’re in the middle of doing something big even now. We’re too weak to help you directly, so instead, we’ll do our best with whatever it is that we can. We aren’t going to huddle into ourselves and just cry like we did back then.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
Ianna smiled ever so faintly. Sienne flushed a little as she cleared her throat and turned her head. Then, her gaze sharpened once she saw the wounded lying scattered about.
“I’m sorry for holding you when I’m sure you’re busy. Please do your best. Well then! We’ll be off to do our own work!”
“Will you be moving the wounded to the medical relief station and treating them? Let me help.”
Ianna ordered her knights to move the wounded to the medical relief station, and she shared her divine power with the spirits, who had appeared at some point and were busily restoring the land while also providing first aid. Ianna’s mighty divine power was tremendously effective in pushing back Taylon’s aura, and the spirits worked faster than ever when she gave them a second wind.
“Thank you for protecting us, Lady Sienne.”
The wounded were in tears as they thanked Sienne for not abandoning them to their fate. They would have died had Sienne decided to flee instead of stopping the dead.
Ianna watched quietly from behind as Sienne and her subordinates swelled up in pride.
She hadn’t meant much when she had saved them, but her seemingly trivial act had been incredibly meaningful for them. The flapping of a butterfly’s wings could lead to a hurricane somewhere far away. And the flapping of the butterflies who had experienced that hurricane would create powerful gales elsewhere in turn.
“Thank you for what you did back then, Lady Ianna!”
Many people gave Ianna their gratitude when they met her on the battlefield or during her occasional stays at a village to rest.
“You cut down the bastards who were beating me up because I was late in paying my street taxes in one blow. I’ll never be able to fully express how satisfying that was.”
Back when Ianna had been going around destroying the Black Fox’s hideouts as the master of Camastros.
“I thought I was a goner, but the monster that’d been drooling right in front of me was sliced in two in just a blink of an eye. I’d only heard rumors of the Black Wind before! I still have my talisman from when they were trending.”
Back when she had been busily destroying the monster Gates as the Black Wind.
“You pushed back Empress Dowager Shailince’s magic with your sword just as she was about to destroy our village.”
Back when she had been busy out of her mind while chasing down the imperial family, who were slaughtering indiscriminately, and trying to stop their attacks…….
Numerous people from the various incidents that Ianna had been involved with came to give her their thanks. Even when Ianna herself could not remember them.
“We were able to hold our ground against the Bahamut imperial family because of Ex-knights’ support. Thank you.”
Even people from the Bahamut Empire came to thank Ianna because she represented Ex-knights.
And the people genuinely meant it when they thanked her —they weren’t simply being sycophantic because she was currently the strongest swordswoman in the world. They hadn’t been able to express their gratitude properly when Ianna had saved them because she had been moving about as busily as the wind, so they wanted to give Ianna their thanks belatedly when they chanced upon her.
“Dame Ianna Ex-knights Rise, our hero!”
Ianna also met with Duke Gellonian Chaipan, who was fighting at the frontlines on Schneider’s orders, often. Gellonian had been elevated to a duke when Schneider had ascended the throne, and it wasn’t strange for him to run into Ianna often because he and his knights were always fighting in dangerous places.
“You don’t know how surprised I was when His Excellency told us that you were the Black Wind after you’d left, Dame Rise. You saved the Chaipan lands from danger. Thank you so much.”
“I want to punch myself for asking you to come to the Chaipan lands if you had nowhere else to go. Haha.”
The knights were deeply grateful to Ianna even through their sheepishness.
“You have our respect, Dame Rise!”
They revered military might, so they liked Ianna very much.
“I’ve always known, right from the very beginning.”
Frederick Holt and his Second Knight Order, who had accompanied Ianna in the Allacamorah Forest so long ago, had long since been charmed not only by Ianna’s military might but also by how she lived her life.
The girl who had grown up being scorned by her house had sacrificed her own arms to save a small child from a horde of minotaurs and had climbed to the very top of the Institution’s Swordsmanship Department, and was now the greatest knight in the world. How could he not be charmed?
“As much as I’d like to learn more from you now that fate has willed us to meet this day, Dame Rise…….”
Gellonian always sought Ianna’s counsel without a shred of embarrassment whenever they met, and he grew undeniably stronger by following her counsel and working hard. And the knights whom Gellonian taught had grown stronger too.
Gellonian and his knights, who had grown considerably stronger, lived up to their name as Roanne’s shield and defended Roanne.
And it wasn’t only the knights.
Ianna met a soldier named Peter and a mercenary named Greg among the duke’s group. They had formed a friendship between ‘people whose heads Dame Rise has stepped on,’ and they worked hard, fought, and laughed together whenever they faced danger together.
Ianna deeply realized that even the smallest actions of one person could greatly alter the course of another’s life as she received the people’s gratitude. She also learned that their small efforts could greatly affect others too in turn…….
The people who had been influenced by Ianna the most were the people of Ex-knights. Especially those who had affiliated themselves with her country precisely because they had been inspired by her.
“If it’s something that we can do, then we’ll do our best to get it done.”
“We’ll make weapons for our victory!”
“We’ll stand on the frontlines and rip our enemies apart until the day we die!”
“We’ll bring peace and harmony to the world.”
“We’ll take responsibility for the deep oceans where it’s difficult for others to go.”
Humans, dwarves, beastmen, elves, and mermaids.
“We’ll take up our swords to safeguard our lives!”
They all adhered to Ex-knights’ idea of justice as they did their best.
Everyone called Ianna a hero, but Ianna herself begged to differ. She was simply doing her best to do what she could, just like everyone else. If Ianna was a hero, then so, too, was anyone else who was also doing their very best.
“Charge!”
Ianna led her Knights of Rise all over the world, to only the most dangerous places. They grabbed their allies by the collars as they stood in battlefields filled with the aura of defeat and dragged them over to victory.
“Fan out!”
At her orders, the knights who had been chasing after only her back scattered and drew their swords.
The sounds of victory began running rife throughout the battlefields.
Ianna left the fighting to her knights while she busily ran around to observe the war situation.
“To your left, Valka!” 1
“Got it!”
The knights both worked together or brandished their swords in a trance-like state while being surrounded alone by dozens of enemies.
“See this to the end. Don’t you dare look away!
“Grit your teeth and stand your ground!
“You guys need to fill my shoes when I’m away. Keep your wits about you, will you?
“Never lose your spite no matter the danger.
“Forget your fears. Think only about victory.”
Ianna whipped the knights with her words and only saved them if they were about to die.
“You are Ex-knights’ swords!”
Ianna was both their reliable pillar of support and also their heartless instructor, and they grew ever spiteful as they blazed even hotter than ever before.
They never had the time to rest even after the battles were over. They were also forced to resume their training after only the shortest break possible.
“Loosen your arm a bit more.
“Take one step forward before you bring your sword down in a vertical swing.”
Ianna gave each and every knight customized advice as she put them through hellish training. She saw through their current states and set them on the path to grow even stronger.
Helping her knights fight for their light and grow stronger also helped Ianna train too.
Physical attributes such as strength and speed, mental attributes such as perseverance and unyieldingness, individual personality, the skills that one tempered and polished, familiar habits, fatal weaknesses, the conviction that one pursued —all these different elements came together in an intricate mix to form a single warrior.
Ianna was able to see the ‘true essence’ of each and every knight by observing them carefully and asking them a few questions, and by so doing, she was able to give them the best advice.
She had previously guided her closest friends, like Herrace and Karnitz, too, but things were different now. Ianna had experienced so many Truths and had surpassed her own limits, and now she could see so much more.
She familiarized herself with seeing the true essence of people by practicing on her knights. All she needed to do now was to look at someone while focusing on them. This skill would be a tremendous asset to her in her fight against Taylon, who was becoming an unknowable being.
But training up her insight wasn’t the only reason why she was training her knights.
Taylon was growing stronger by devouring the world, and Ianna was growing stronger by tempering and polishing her own light. They were both at the distant, ultimate peak. And even from there, they were both racing toward their respective idea of infinity as they grew endlessly stronger.
Ianna was confident that she could defeat Taylon if she had enough time, but the fight was already staring her in the face.
Right now, the two of them were like the needle of a scale that was moving dizzily left and right without being able to determine a fixed weight. Or like the ever-spinning hands of a clock. Or even like a balance that was tipping back and forth.
They were so extremely similar in skill level that neither one was obviously weaker than the other, but neither one was the obvious to-be victor either.
It was not an exaggeration to say that the outcome of their fight would be determined not by a difference in skill but by the smallest lapse in attention or an instantaneous stroke of luck.
Ianna had to win this fight without fail. But the fact that she had so much she needed to protect was a weakness to her, and it was a weakness that Taylon would undoubtedly target.
So, what must she do in order to be victorious with the fewest losses possible?
‘I can’t do this alone.’
Ianna didn’t have enough hands because she was only one person. Arhad would support her in her fight and block as much of the damage as he possibly could, among other things, but Arhad alone would not be enough either.
She needed people to fight Taylon’s merciless armies. People who would protect the noncombatants.
It would also be nice to have people who could aid her in an emergency and distract Taylon, even if only a little. Even the lightest weight was capable of breaking a great equilibrium, just as someone’s smallest actions were capable of greatly altering the course of another’s life.
Ianna decided to entrust this role to the people from Ex-knights who accompanied her in her will.
“Grow stronger!
“Surpass your limits, and then surpass them again!”
She pushed the Knights of Rise so hard that she could not possibly push them any further than this.
“Blech!”
Countless knights vomited, even though their order was composed of only Ex-knights’ strongest, and some of them even passed out. They likely would have been bedridden had the spirits not rejuvenated them on the spot.
The knights exchanged looks because they thought that Ianna was terrifying.
‘She’s so tenacious.’
‘No wonder she’s so strong, considering how crazy her trainings are…….’
‘This reminds me of her trainings from back at the Institution. Urp.’
It was so hard. But not a single one of them fled. They didn’t complain either. They gritted their teeth and occasionally cursed out loud, but they continued to chase after Ianna, who was racing full speed ahead, even as their vision began to blur from exhaustion.
Everyone knew. The person who was working the hardest was Ianna herself. She was the last to go to bed and the first to rise in the morning. It was also Ianna who was going through the most difficulty. After all, the responsibility weighing on her shoulders and the burdens she carried were surely nothing to scoff at.
They also understood that Ianna was pushing them so hard because the final battle was before them. They understood that there was a role that she wanted them to play. And so, they did not dare allow themselves to stop.
And most importantly, as swordsmen, they realized that this was both the greatest danger and the greatest opportunity that would allow them to grow at a blinding pace. They were keenly aware that they were growing scarily stronger by the day all thanks to Ianna.
‘It feels good.’
‘I’ve always thought that I was plenty strong, but now I know that I’ve always been able to grow so much stronger…….’
The entire knight order was having fun despite the difficulty, and there were even a few knights who were dyed in madness and blazing brightly in their focus because they were having so much fun.
‘I’m going to keep chasing after her until I drop dead.’
‘I’m loyal to her forever —forever, I tell you!’
They were those who were also from the Institution and had trained with Ianna before.
They had been inspired by Ianna all the way down to their very bones as they watched over her life during her three years at the Institution —and her last year in particular. They envied Ianna, and they had followed after her and helped with founding Ex-knights after hearing the rumors when Ianna was preparing to create her own kingdom, and they had received Ianna’s guidance as they defended Ex-knights from countless dangers.
They embraced the romantic notion that they could do anything so long as they were with Ianna, and they embraced the greed to grow stronger. And so, they repeatedly told themselves that they would even follow Ianna to hell if they must.
‘I feel like I’m going to die, but this the best, Little Ianna —the absolute best.’
Herrace, who was ashen-faced, vomiting, and had tears streaming down his face, just like he had back during their Institution days, was the first and foremost example.
Countless battles were waged even after that.
Naturally, Taylon didn’t simply ignore his forces and unilaterally suffer losses either. He had launched concentrated surprise attacks, set deadly traps, and had even taken hostages to blackmail his foes.
Most of his attacks targeted Ianna.
The darkness targeted Ianna through a variety a means, just like what had happened during the battle in the Akashic Records.
But Ianna did not bend or break, nor was she even daunted. Nothing could block her path forward unless it was Taylon in the flesh.
And the other people whom Taylon’s army had attacked came together to best the danger too. Thus, more and more of Taylon’s attacks began to fail, and more and more of the dead returned to Laos’ side. And the people only grew more confident.
Then, one day…
“Stab them!”
Pooow!
The Knights of Rise appeared from every direction and stabbed the monster as one. They had been keeping their distance from the monster’s bone-chilling gaze, persistent hands, and ravenous mouths until their leader gave the signal and they launched a powerful attack in unison.
Among them, it was Herrace’s sword that reached the monster’s core. He gritted his teeth and grasped his hilt hard as he focused his entire mind on the core that was touching the edge of his blade.
Crackle.
Shaaaaa!
The core broke, and the monster that had been devouring the world exploded into black smoke and faded away.
The knights were blasted away and tumbled across the ground, but they quickly climbed back up to their feet and raised their swords high into the air.
“We won!”
“Whoaaaa!”
Ianna watched from afar as her knights cheered.
She had been making them train their cooperation skills too, and not just their personal skills. And the targets of their training were the monsters of darkness, which were essentially offshoots of Taylon.
There was always at least one or two monsters in any large army of the dead. The monsters were principally responsible for devouring the world. But they also had their weaknesses. They may be terrifying monsters capable of devouring the world, but they still needed a source to supply them with power. This was their core.
Ianna had exterminated the monsters personally at first or whenever she judged that her knights were in peril, but now they were more than enough to take care of small or mid-sized monsters if they worked together.
The sight of her knights, who each shone with their own unique colors, working together was like seeing the most beautiful, and also the most tenacious and tough, tapestry in the world.
Ianna hoped that this tapestry would play a certain role in battle as she spread open the map.
She didn’t know how it was possible, but the monsters of darkness were connected to Taylon and looked like him on the map. The monsters were supposed to spit out everything they had eaten once they were slain, but they left nothing behind, as if there had never been anything inside their stomach to begin with, when they went extinct. Everything they had eaten had probably been transferred over to Taylon, who was surely still out there somewhere.
Ianna’s eyes quickly scanned the map. Black dots had seemed to cover at least half the continent at first, but their numbers had decreased considerably now.
But there were still so many left. Including the blackest dots, which Ianna and her Knights of Rise had to take care of.
‘Taylon…….’
Ianna pointed at those dots with her finger. She had visited any location where Taylon might be hiding and had fought countless battles, but she still had yet to encounter Taylon in person.
‘Is he still in Takalon, like we expected?’
She tapped against the bastard’s main stronghold, which was dyed in a particularly dark shade of black.
‘He’s probably observing me through the monsters’ eyes from there.’
When would their battle take place?
“……?”
Something changed just then.
The black dots were vanishing off the map as if they were being swept away by a breeze.
“Lady Ianna!”
Ianna raised her head and looked forward while scowling as her subordinate called out to her in alarm. The monster was dead, but there had still been numerous dead that they had yet to finish dealing with. And yet, all of the remaining dead had suddenly turned into black smoke and vanished away.
Ianna’s ring began flashing.
[Did you feel the change, Ianna?]
It was Arhad.
“Yes. And all the dead went extinct at once.”
Ianna turned to the map once more.
The map had been cleaned up very nicely. The dots that had been scattered messily all throughout it had cleared away, and in return, one giant, dark dot had appeared as if it was the amalgamation of all the other dots joined together. It was almost like a hole had appeared on the map.
“I see that his forces are concentrated at Takalon.”
[Yes. The bastard’s changed his strategy.]
Taylon had likely realized that he only stood to lose if he continued avoiding confronting Ianna, gathering more of the dead, and devouring the world like he had been.
Ianna looked up at the sky.
She had fought hard, but Taylon had still managed to eat more of the world like some kind of starved demon in the meanwhile. The fissures in the sky had grown worse than they had been before.
“Stand by.”
Ianna ordered her nervous knights to wait on standby and teleported over to Takalon with Arhad’s help.
Roarrrrrrr…….
Takalon, Bahamut’s imperial capital that was enveloped in Taylon’s aura, was dyed in a truly dreadful black.
‘It’s swarming with the bastard’s armies.’
Takalon was like an anthill that was teeming with blackish ants.
And those ants weren’t comprised with only the dead.
There were also numerous monsters, which obeyed Taylon either voluntarily or by force, and even humans who were very distinctly alive. The humans’ souls were so black and filthy that Ianna wondered if it would even be possible to rehabilitate them.
Empress Dowager Shailince’s public execution before the empire’s people.
The rise of the Revolution Army and the desertion of Bahamut’s greater nobles.
Taylon’s recent bloody purges.
Most of the people of Bahamut had either joined the Revolution Army or had sought asylum in other lands due to the aforementioned events. But these people had decided to stay in Takalon even though they had been offered the opportunity to escape. This meant that they were all bastards who genuinely followed Taylon.
Ianna glared with wintry eyes as she surveyed them.
‘There will be no second chances.’
Just then, something peculiar caught her eye.
‘Is that……a road?’
There was an area where the aura of darkness wasn’t gathered as densely. And it stretched out in a straight line like a road. It was almost like a path had been cleared so that a certain someone could visit at her leisure.
What was this if not Taylon’s invitation to Ianna?
“He wants to bring this to an end now,”
Ianna whispered, prompting Arhad to concur through their rings.
Ianna returned to the Knights of Rise. They were calm and composed as they awaited her next orders.
Or, were they really? A chilling and eerily quiet excitement, as contradictory as that was, had settled atop their shoulders.
The knights, whom Ianna had personally taken great pains to temper and polish, were looking piercingly back at her. Their gazes were as upright as swords and as sharp as blades.
They had predicted this.
Ianna took a long, deep breath and declared,
“It’s time.”
Almost everyone in the world who could fight had assembled around Takalon.
Everyone anticipated that this would be the final battle against Taylon —no, against the Bahamut imperial family, which had ruled the continent with fear for centuries. Losing this battle meant that the world would fall into Taylon’s hands, and the people were nervous because no one knew what would happen to the world should that come to pass.
The darkness shroud over Takalon was like a never-ending night. A few countries had taken fright after trying to scout Takalon out in secret and had even tries to slip out their forces. But only a very few, as Arhad and Schneider had strongly cautioned that they would be sanctioning any such shameless countries once the fighting was over.
“This battle will go down in history regardless of how it ends.”
“Won’t history itself stop existing if Bahamut wins? We have to win no matter what.”
The very best warriors and mages in the world had volunteered to be here even if they were not formally affiliated with any army. After all, how could they possibly fail to participate in the decisive battle that would determine the fate of the world? They had no choice but to fight, even if it meant their deaths.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this meaningful and glorious battle will…….”
“Our names will go down in history…….”
“It will be sung in the legends…….”
The leaders of each group began making speeches as loudly as their voices would allow in order to raise their group’s morale before the promised time came. Each and every speech included something about glory, history, greatness, legends, life and death, and salvation.
Ex-knights’ army was similarly nervous as they waited anxiously for their leaders to step up to the platform. It wasn’t long before two people climbed up the stairs and stood tall at the center of the platform.
They were Ianna and Arhad, who had armed themselves for battle.
Ianna, who would be doing battle against Taylon, was wearing an athletic battle uniform with light mithril armor on top.
Arhad, who not only had to defend their allies from getting swept into Ianna and Taylon’s fighting but also had to support Ianna and occasionally launch large-scale attacks in the middle of the fighting, was wearing appropriate medium armor.
Ianna stepped forward as Arhad stood beside her. The eyes of the people of Ex-knights, who were swelling with expectation, turned to her at once.
All of Ex-knights was looking to Ianna in this very moment.
Even the non-combatants, who were still in Ex-knights’ mainland and therefore far away from Takalon, were watching Ianna through projections conjured by divine arts.
“That’s Ianna…….”
Even people from other nations turned away from their own leaders and looked to Ianna when she stepped forward.
Ianna Ex-knights Rise, the great swordswoman.
Ex-knights was to shoulder the most important role in this battle, and it was Ianna who would be facing Taylon directly.
Ianna stood tall as she obstructed the ominous winds blowing from Takalon. Everyone who was gathered here felt something different as they looked to her. But each emotion was undoubtedly surging with hope and had planted their roots against the winds of desperation.
“Do you recall what I said when our kingdom was founded?”
The people of Ex-knights who had attended the founding ceremony naturally remembered what they had felt that day and the words that their leaders had declared. Even those who had only moved to Ex-knights afterward knew what had happened because they had heard about it so many times from others that their ears were practically falling off and they had seen so many records of that day that they thought they were going blind.
Each and every word had been Ex-knights’ very foundation. But, why was Ianna suddenly asking them to recall this just before the battle against Taylon?
“I ask each and every one of you to remember what exactly our justice is now that the battle is before our very eyes.”
Ianna took a deep breath and surveyed her people. She continued,
“We are greedy beings.”
It is only natural for us to be faithful to our greed because we live according to our greed to accomplish things.
“And this world that we live in moves in accordance with the strict providence that we call the law of the jungle.”
But, how would we be any different from mere beasts with no intelligence if we only moved in accordance with our greed? How would we be any different from the monsters that covet life and do nothing but kill and steal? If the world is absolute and we cannot defy it, then how are our lives any different from the components of a mere machine?
“A world in which only greed and providence exist is a simplistic and barbaric world indeed.”
Ianna closed her eyes and slowly opened them to the astral plane.
“But the world that we live in is colorful and ever-changing.”
Each and every person was different. Their souls, each of which shone in their own unique color, were like flowers each with their own unique names. And when they were gathered together, those flowers came together as a beautiful plain beneath the sunlight.
“We defy the providence known as the law of the jungle because we live alongside others. How is this possible? It’s possible because greed can be regulated by justice, and because providence can be defied by the strength of our will.”
Justice was the means by which greed was regulated and unraveled.
And wills were the weight that could counterbalance providence.
“Everyone in this world unravels their greed with their personal ideal of justice, and they rival providence in their life by the power of their will. Even Taylon Helkan Bahamut has his personal ideal of justice, just as I have mine.”
Ianna’s eyes were as clear as a transparent crystal ball and as warm as a bonfire blazing against the cold night as she looked to the people who followed her. She was upright, as if she was extending directly up from her sword, and she was so firm that it seemed like she would never waver no matter the turmoil around her.
“And I believe that this world is a world in which we can live together in goodwill and a world that can grow stronger because we live in it together!”
Ianna had matured and grown much stronger in this life, where she was with Arhad and was working together with others in goodwill, than her first life, where she had closed off her heart and had lived in solitude.
“I will fight against the unreasonable and the unjust until the bitter end. I will consider my own life, honor, and importance while also respecting that of others.”
I will stand strong against strong criminals, and I will allow myself to be weak before the weak innocents. I will fight alongside those who step up to this challenge with me with everything I have, I will applaud the victors, and I will be generous to the defeated.
I will defend my allies who fight with me with my life, and I will slay my enemies who harm what is mine with my full might. I will grant any enemies who sincerely beg for forgiveness just one second chance, and I will swiftly bring down the iron hammer upon any enemy who does not repent as I live alongside you.
“I will place myself in the constant struggle between selfishness and altruism, and I will live by taking greed and providence by the reins and by wielding the sword called creed with the strength of my will.”
Ianna held her sword vertically planted it into the ground. She then placed her hands over the hilt as her sword stood tall like a tree that had planted its roots deep into the earth.
“I am a knight!”
I will be as greedy as my heart desires, and I will obey the providence of this world.
But I will not be swayed, and I will always be in control.
I will fight against any greed or providence that is unreasonable, and I will emerge victorious.
And I will lead my world in the direction that I believe is right.
Then, just as she had as she had declared Ex-knights’ founding that day, Ianna took the justice in which her will and her creed had taken root……
“This is my chivalry!”
And she proclaimed it chivalry.
“Look at that monster over there,”
Ianna said as she pointed to the imperial castle of Takalon, in which Taylon was lurking, and at Taylon’s armies.
“Look at that selfish monster, who is willing to destroy the world itself in the name of growing stronger —at the scoundrel who refuses to rein in his wild horses and busies himself with nothing but destruction! Look at his army of monsters, who are so drunk on power that they proclaim that only domination, oppression, plunder, and destruction are justice!”
The people looked at Takalon in anxiety and fear.
“And now, look at me.”
The people were pallid as they turned back to Ianna.
“Look at me —at how I’ve grown stronger than any other by tempering and polishing the sword in my heart! Look at me as I stand here to protect those I love and to do battle against all those who threaten them!”
A flood of confidence and security washed over the people.
“And look at yourselves as you stand here alongside me!”
They were keenly aware of the contrasting emotions they experienced as they looked between Takalon and Ianna.
Ianna posed them a question.
“Answer me. Who’s idea of justice do you believe is right?”
“Ours!”
There was no hesitation as they shouted back their answer.
“And who is it that you follow?”
“You!”
“In that case, draw your swords!”
Clang————————————!
A brilliant sound rent through the darkness and touched the people’s hearts as soon as Ianna drew her sword and pointed it high into the sky.
“Hold your creed upright and raise up your weapons!”
The people raised up their weapons as if they were entranced.
“May each and every person who follows me become as a knight! O knights of Ex-knights, battle the enemies who threaten us and prove to them that our justice is righteous!”
Someone raised their voice as soon as the words had left Ianna’s lips.
Night will quickly enshroud the world once twilight touches down…….
Every citizen of Ex-knights was familiar with this phrase, even the children, who sang it like a nursery song.
One, two —more people began singing along. And the song began to flow from farther and farther away.
But let us have faith that light and joy will illuminate the world once more and press on.
With upright discernment and unwavering might.
Let us fight for righteousness and justice like flames ignited.
It was like the roar of the people as they cried out their final will.
Here, in this place, exist knights.
“Let’s prove it!”
the people roared. Trust was overflowing in their eyes as they looked up to Ianna. They were almost fanatical, as if they had never doubted her strength to begin with, and their feelings were one-sided, as if they could accomplish anything as long as they followed her.
Ianna had recovered the people’s trust, which she had lost during her absence, in no time at all. But this wasn’t what she had wanted.
“Everyone,”
Ianna began with a sigh. She continued,
“I may speak with confidence, but I am neither as invincible nor as absolute as you seem to think I am.”
The cheering crowd began to dither.
“I am not perfect. I am someone who is lacking in many ways. It’s always possible that I will make mistakes and fail.”
Why was she expressing such weakness when she should be doing everything in her power to raise morale? The people were puzzled as Ianna quickly scanned over them.
“So please help me make up for what I lack.”
Everyone felt like their eyes had met Ianna’s in that moment.
“Please hold me steady if you think that I’m about to slip up. Please lend me your assistance if you think that I’m about to fail. Please be as my knights, all of you! And with you at my side, I shall be as Ex-knights’ unbreakable sword.”
Whoaaaaaa!
Morale skyrocketed as the people roared louder than before.
Then, Arhad, who had been waiting for Ianna to finish speaking, stepped forward too. He took Ianna’s hand as if they were shaking hands.
“Please,”
Arhad pressed his lips against the back of Ianna’s hand as she whispered. Ianna felt warm divine power flowing into her from where they touched. It was a golden light, like the halo around the sun, which would lift her back up if she was eroded by malice.
“May you find victory in your path.”
Ianna used her free hand to take Arhad’s and kiss him back.
“I entrust my back to you.”
She felt full as she let go of Arhad’s hand.
Then, she immediately began running toward Takalon.
The final battle had begun.
The people ran behind her as she raced. Their enemies from Takalon, who had sensed the change, rushed toward them too. Only the road on which Ianna raced was empty.
Ianna followed the road and arrived at the deepest part of Takalon, the Bahamut imperial castle, in no time at all. The castle was empty. Ianna was unhindered as she ran.
The road ended quickly as she ran with all her might.
The road had led her to a vast and magnificent hall.
Sitting at the tall throne at the end of the hall, was Taylon. He had been drinking a glass of wine that was redder than blood as he waited for her.
“That was a magnificent speech.”
Taylon applauded loudly. He continued,
“You’re incredible. You’re the best —not Roanne, who blocked our path time and time again, not the dragons, our sworn enemies, nor even the Demon, our long-cherished wish, but you.”
“Have you finished saying your last will?”
Taylon picked up the wineglass on the table and downed it in one go.
Clatter!
The glass, which had flown past Ianna, shattered into pieces.
“I wanted to take you alive, but I had no choice but to try to eat you instead because I don’t have the confidence to keep you under my control. And I still want to eat you even now.”
Black smoke poured out from Taylon’s lips. He continued,
“But I’m not confident that I’ll win. I ate the world itself to grow stronger, but I’m still not confident. I’m sure it’d have ended up the same way no matter what I did.”
He had taken the appearance of a human, but he did not look human.
“But I don’t think that I’ll lose, either. So, what am I to do?”
Taylon grinned.
“There’s only one answer. I have no choice but to put everything on the line and fight.”
And with a sigh……Taylon huffed out a long stretch of black smoke. The smoke covered the gigantic hall in no time at all, and it made a mess of the space that had used to be the hall.
“Let’s fight and see who’s idea of justice is right, just like you said.”
This was their final duel.
Taylon let go of the anxiety that Ianna had been making him feel. Then, all that was left inside his heart was an insane pleasure, an entertaining competitiveness, and his greed for Ianna.
“Isn’t it so straightforward? —the person who’s in the right will win this war.”
The very floor beneath Ianna’s feet vanished and the space where she was standing began to spin. Ianna felt the space touching her skin be reconstructed and the flow of time becoming tangled.
Groaaaaaaan…….
Groaaan…….
Countless dead appeared. They extended their blackened arms to grab Ianna, and they quickly turned into a muddy swamp to drag her down and obstruct her vision.
“This is no different from what happened in the Akashic Records. Did you learn nothing from our last fight?”
“You can’t say that for certain. I’m different from how I was before.”
Taylon grinned as he stood up from his throne.
The dead weren’t the end of his assault, just as he’d suggested. The world itself was turning bizarre.
Greyish chains draped the sky like lace and clattered as they moved, and large gears, floating in the air like clouds, haphazardly spun clockwise and counterclockwise, and some even broke in the process. But their broken pieces fell up instead of down.
Tapes creaked as they wound up, and countries of broken toy soldiers tumbled along the road. All kinds of beautiful songs melded together into a ghostly lament.
Flowers blossomed only to quickly wilt and turn into snakes, and the snakes shuddered before they sprouted innumerable legs and transformed into insects. The insects became frogs and began hopping around.
The black smoke emitting from black flames became tarantulas, and the tarantulas quickly transformed into many-horned beasts. The beasts looked up at the sky and wailed before they were ripped to shreds. Only their bones remained, which rattled as they walked forward.
The records that had been accumulated in the Akashic Records had jumbled together into a bizarre world that ignored the Law. It felt like this world embodied ‘Taylon’ himself because it had been created by his aura. It was a world that Ianna would never be able to comprehend.
The one thing that she was certain of, however, was that this spacetime was Taylon himself and was therefore hostile toward her in accordance to his will.
“How very bizarre. Is this the new spacetime you created after devouring the world?”
“Well, who could say?”
Ianna was not swayed by Taylon’s pregnant reply and immediately held Rise upright. She raised her fighting spirit as she sent her fortification flying at Taylon.
Baaang!
Ianna’s sword clashed against Taylon’s lance dozens, hundreds, thousands of times. She focused on defending herself from Taylon’s attacks as she observed Taylon’s world.
Information was the basics of battle.
Ianna had to take back the dragons’ hearts before she slew Taylon, which meant that she had to study his body, his soul, his heart, and his power……and she had to grasp everything that he was. Her senses, which had been sharpened to the extreme, began analyzing Taylon as if she was dissecting him right before her very eyes.
And Ianna found something strange.
‘Is this bastard not the real Taylon? He’s slower than I expected, and he doesn’t have a heart inside of his chest.’
But he felt too strongly of the real Taylon. And if he really was just one of Taylon’s creations, then it was strange that he didn’t have a core. The monsters of darkness that accompanied the armies of the dead were offshoots of Taylon too, but they required cores in order to move around as freely as the bastard himself did.
This could only mean one thing.
‘This bastard is like one of Taylon’s limbs or organs. He’s connected to Taylon’s heart, which is somewhere else.’
Then, where was Taylon’s real body? Ianna sharpened her senses even further and cast them even wider as she brought her sword diagonally down.
Pow!
She cut off Taylon’s right arm at the shoulder. The Taylon before her was not his real self fighting at his best —it was merely a part of him—, and he was not a match for Ianna.
Shaaaa!
Hundreds of black arms burst out from the bastard’s severed shoulder and tried to grab hold of Ianna.
Ianna’s sword drew up a storm as she sliced apart all of them. The black hands fell to the ground and began flopping around.
Cruuunch!
The black hands grabbed the earth like they were planting their roots and sprouted tentacles that looked like thorny vines. The vines tangled into and into each other and birthed more dead, which were black from head to toe, that began limping around. Ianna’s brows twitched when she saw one of the dead’s faces.
Just then, a whip sword shaped like a dragon’s spine flew toward Ianna from behind.
Crack!
The whip sword dug into the earth like a mole when Ianna dodged it and drove itself deep into the soil.
White vertebrae grew out from the ground like diving whales and grabbed hold of Ianna’s ankles and wrapped around her waist.
Ianna paused for a moment because her movements had been restricted, and then someone attacked her from behind while aiming at her heart.
Pooow!
Ianna poured strength into her body to blast away the whip sword that had coiled around her, and she spun around to cut down the being who had brandished the whip sword at her to begin with.
“Hi there. It’s been a while, Dame Rise.”
Black aura oozed out from the woman’s injured flank in the lieu of blood, like venom dribbling out from a venomous snake, as she greeted Ianna quietly.
It was Isabella.
Isabella’s side stitched itself together like she was being sewed back up. She moistened her lips with a sticky tongue.
“How cold. You’re not even going to say hello?”
Ianna narrowed her eyes as she observed Isabella. Laos had told her that Isabella was inside Taylon and still maintained her own ego. Isabella was essentially just as alive as any other human being, just as Laos had suggested.
The limping dead had climbed up to their feet at some point and were staring openly at Ianna. They all had black hair and black eyes.
And among them was a face that Ianna had recognized —Shailince.
‘Are those bastards the ancestors of the Bahamut lineage? They don’t have hearts either, just like Taylon and Isabella.’
Isabella pulled her whip sword taut.
“You’re going to join us starting today, so can’t you just stay still?”
The dead Bahamuts began rushing Ianna at once as soon as the words had left Isabella’s lips.
“We want you.”
“We desire you.”
“We lust for your strength.”
“Relinquish your power!”
The dead Bahamuts rushing Ianna were the strongest dead she had witnessed thus far. But their attacks would never touch her unless she purposefully allowed it.
Then, the dead Bahamuts began merging together one by one. They transformed into one gigantic snake. The snake opened its maw wide and rushed toward Ianna.
[Become a part of me!]
The monstrous snake was Bahamut, the progenitor of the Bahamut lineage.
And of this Ianna was certain as she stared at Bahamut’s fangs as he tried to strike her.
‘We’re inside of Taylon’s body.’
Shaaaaaa!
The earth that she had been standing on became the sea. Ianna dodged backward by stepping over the water, and Bahamut’s massive frame slipped underwater with a splash after his assault had failed.
‘The Bahamut imperial castle itself was Taylon’s body, which distorted the space around it.’
Ianna had essentially allowed Taylon to swallow her when she had willingly followed the road and ran inside the castle.
The reason why this spacetime felt like Taylon, why Taylon, Isabella, and Bahamut, the monstrous snake, had no hearts —it was all because they were inside Taylon’s body.
Ianna looked in turns between Bahamut, who was underwater, and Taylon and Isabella, who were floating in the sky as they looked down at the situation.
‘In that case, all three of their bodies are connected to their hearts somewhere inside this world.’
Rumbleeeee!
The world melted down just then. The sky, Taylon’s body, and Isabella’s body melted like candle wax as the entire world became an ocean of muddy swamp.
Ianna subconsciously stabbed her sword into the ocean. There wasn’t a single ray of light to be seen, and she could not tell up from down.
The ocean pulsed like it was one colossal living creature. The currents coiled around her like seaweed and beat against her like it was trying to burst her body open. The entire world devoted itself into melting down Ianna’s body.
She couldn’t breathe. She felt like her body was burning.
But Ianna had an imperturbable mind, and she remained endlessly calm.
‘He’s trying to melt down my body and obtain my heart and soul, just like he did with the dragons. He’s quite impatient.’
This was the perfect opportunity. She had entered the world that was the inside of his body, and now she had to figure everything out while he had stuck everything that he was on her and was trying to digest her.
‘I have to thank you for being so greedy.’
Ianna spent as little energy in protecting her body as possible as she sharpened her concentration to the extreme. Only her eyes glistened brightly in the distance inside the pitch-black ocean as she peered through Taylon’s world.
Her transcendental senses translated everything that Taylon was into information. Information inundated Ianna’s brain like a deluge.
Badump, badump.
She could hear a heartbeat coming from somewhere in the deep, dark sea.
It was not one but many hearts beating quietly in an irregular harmony.
Ianna let out a long breath. Bubbled rose up toward the surface.
‘That’s all I need.’
She was done observing.
Taylon’s heart was at the center of this world. Bahamut’s heart, Isabella’s heart, and Kandemayon’s heart were wrapped protectively around it. The four dragons’ hearts were, in turn, wrapped around them on the outermost layer.
But Taylon’s heart was so far away from where Ianna currently was. The distance between them was like the distance between the beginning and end of the universe. The other hearts, too, were surely near Taylon’s heart, but they felt so far away from his.
‘Is it due to a distortion of space?’
Ianna began making plans based on the information she had obtained.
‘I need Laos here.’
She needed Laos’ power to rescue the dragons.
‘I should get out of here first.’
Ianna readjusted her grip on her sword. Rise, the unbreakable sword, became as one with Ianna in this terrifying world.
‘My flow keeps getting interrupted.’
There was no path to the dragons’ hearts. This was because of the power of chaos, which could disrupt space and turn everything into disorder.
But there was path to the Bahamut bastards’ hearts. This ocean, which was a manifestation of the Bahamut lineage’s greed, was that very path. The currents that were restraining Ianna were like the Bahamut lineage’s blood vessels and nerves, which in turn led to their hearts.
‘I won’t be able to make it all the way to Taylon’s heart. In that case, I should choose between Isabella’s heart or Bahamut’s heart…….’
Bahamut began growling like a lion as he noticed that something in Ianna had changed. He grew more frantic as he tried to squeezed the life out of her. But it was to no avail.
‘I’ll Rend you apart.’
Ianna’s swordplay had grown close to becoming her power in this moment.
‘Hwoooo…….’
Ianna silently took a deep breath as she pulled her sword downward.
‘First, is Bahamut!’
She had only swung her sword once.
Craaack!
A glowing crimson crescent moon shattered the ocean and flew toward its goal.
Growwwl!
The ocean sensed the danger and created a colossal tsunami to block the crimson fortification. But Ianna’s fortification had already charted out its course, and it shattered the seawater and turned it into foam.
“You……!”
Taylon sprang out from the ocean and tried to beat back Ianna’s fortification with his lance, but it sliced through both his body and his lance altogether as it continued forward like raging billows. Ianna’s fortification surpassed the speed of light itself as it reached Bahamut’s heart.
Craaaack!
Bahamut’s heart splintered into pieces as it was destroyed.
And the black ocean immediately vaporized and went extinct.
“…….”
Taylon stood alone as he stared at Ianna in the empty expanse where neither the sea nor the sky existed.
He was expressionless. His face was devoid of any emotion, and even his greed for Ianna had disappeared.
“This really isn’t working. It’s too hard to eat you.”
An artificial disappointment dyed Taylon’s features as he raised his hands up. Then, he said,
“I’ve lost.”
He declared his surrender.
“I give up on trying to have you, and I give up on trying to eat you.”
Ianna had no reason to listen to what the bastard had left to say now that she had obtained all the information about him that she needed. Ianna raised her sword up to sunder this dimension of spacetime apart.
“……So, I’m just going to kill you instead.”
Taylon’s black eyes were blazing with bloodlust.
Space spread opened like a door just before Ianna’s attack reached Taylon’s abdomen. The gap in space, to which Ianna’s attack was sent, turned into a black hole and began to pull Ianna in.
Ianna flung herself outside like she was being chased out.
A peculiar and overwhelming scene filled her eyes as she fell like she had been thrown away.
The bastard was a colossal monster.
There was infinite emptiness in his eyes, which were deeper than the abyss itself, and a messy jumble of spacetime filled his gigantic maw.
He resembled a dragon, but his shape wasn’t fixed, and his blackened skin was melted and bubbling like lava. It wasn’t difficult for Ianna to see how his black figure swirled with vortexes and conclude that he could transform into any shape he wished.
He was the greatest dragonoid, greater than the dragons themselves —or perhaps even something greater. A transcendental being that transcended common sense. He ruled over this space as an unknowable terror.
Black lightning fell as he stretched out his huddled body and spread open his wings. The six wings jutting out from his back exuded an overwhelming power. Black tornados pulled the heavens to the earth and swept the earth away, and black lava erupted from the earth and brought forth calamity everywhere it touched.
Taylon, the monster of the unknown who had flung Ianna aside, looked up at the sky and opened his maw.
Shaaaaaa…….
The world was sucked inside Taylon’s mouth like a whirlpool.
Immediately thereafter, a gigantic golden net appeared out of nowhere and cast itself between the bastard and the world.
“Ianna!”
Arhad came flying to Ianna, who had landed on the ground. Ianna took a quick look at her surroundings and jumped up to her feet. The battle was at a lull for some reason.
“How many days has it been since I entered Takalon?”
“Five.”
Arhad told Ianna that Takalon had been enveloped in black smoke and taken the shape of an egg as soon as Ianna had entered, and that it had begun emitting a heartbeat that was loud enough to shake the earth. Then, a few days later, the black smoke flowed down like a liquid, and a newly born monster had emerged as if from a womb.
“But the bastard just sat there and huddled up without moving. It was like he was focusing his everything on something inside him.”
It wasn’t difficult for Arhad to realize that the monster, which he assumed was Taylon, was battling Ianna inside his own body. Arhad had attacked Taylon with everything he had in an attempt to support Ianna, but his attacks hadn’t been able to reach because the bastard had taken a defensive stance. The power that Arhad had put into his attacks had been absorbed by Taylon instead.
Arhad had decided to change his plans after a couple of failures.
Instead, he decided to trust Ianna to deal with Taylon and sweep away the bastard’s armies while he was keeping quiet.
The Allied Forces and the Bahamut army had fought like they had lost their minds. But the Allied Forces, which had Arhad’s support, held the advantage over the Bahamut army because Taylon had remained silent.
The birdmen, including Mahirus Hawk, flew around the skies and constantly reported back on the battle situation, and Eiji and the information bureau did everything in their power to organize the information they received and convey it to their commanders. Shion and Niall Sabelix had set traps all over the battlefield in advance, and they used the traps and their bombs to trip their enemies with remarkable success.
Mages and divine arts users, like Dorcianni, Heinrich, and Ensheila, showered their enemies with every spell and art they knew. Lalatua supported Taro and others with all kinds of buffs.
Lumiere and the elves joined Saiwè’s archery unit and rained down arrows. Absilot and the beastmen entrusted their bodies and minds to the madness of battle and ran rampant over the battlefields. Chendelf and the dwarves carried all sorts of weapons on their backs as they brandished their hammers and fixed the broken weapons of their allies.
The spirits had summoned their true forms and were countering the disasters that Taylon was bringing about.
Towe, a golem that was the earth itself, took hold of the earth to stop the quakes and buried the bodies of the dead. Innis, a whale as vast as the sea itself, purified the poison that moistened the earth, healed the people, and swept away their enemies in a flood.
Kagomyne, a giant fox who was like an amalgamation of all the lava in the world, purified the evil that was dying the dead and burned their enemies with hellfire. Shweia, a bird whose wings covered the skies, protected their allies by flapping his wings and blowing away the black aura and redirected Taylon’s storms back to their enemies.
Gilchop Merakers, the mage who had become the head imperial court mage after Wiffheimer Potestas’ demise, was killed by Maimayè Leviagè’s magic as a result of their duel. Bakatrio Zenoid, a faithful commander of the Bahamut army, was killed when Absilot’s fist came flying at him.
Countless of the dead had returned to Laos’ side, and their souls were not dragged back to participate in this battle. When they judged that things had grown grave, the surviving Bahamut army turned tail and retreated back to Taylon, and the monster absorbed them all into his body.
This was the current situation.
“Arhad. I need to get back inside Taylon’s body with Elly and…….”
Poooow!
The monster’s tail surpassed spacetime and flung Ianna far away. It then whipped up a storm as it spiraled and coiled itself around Arhad’s body in an attempt to crush him.
Splat!
Ianna immediately came flying back and cut off the tail, and Arhad burst it open. Ianna endured a pain that made it feel like her bones were breaking apart and screamed,
“Elly!”
Elly was by her side as soon as she called her name. Ianna continued,
“I need to go back inside the bastard with you. I need you to stay with me and create me a path to the dragon’s hearts.”
The antithesis of Chaos was Law.
The infinite and irregular power of Chaos may erase her path, but Elly could always remake it with her power.
Ianna could not see where Taylon’s heart was from outside his body. Moreover, Elly couldn’t create a path to the dragon’s heart from the outside because the world inside of Taylon was disconnected from the outside world.
They needed to go back inside the bastard’s world.
“Okay.”
Ianna kicked against the earth and began running back toward Taylon as soon as she saw Elly nodding back resolutely.
Taylon flew up toward the heavens and opened his maw at Ianna’s direction. Hundreds of other mouths appeared all over his colossal frame and opened up too.
Shaaaaa!
Hundreds of beams of darkness dispersed into the world.
Arhad activated the barrier that he had prepared beforehand. His role was to block the attacks that Taylon scattered indiscriminately and stop them from affecting the battle, so he put his trust in Ianna and focused solely on his role.
The hundreds of small beams collided against Arhad’s barrier.
Creeeeeeeeack!
The air roared like it was about to rupture and disturbed the world. The biggest beam cut through the sea of noise and fell directly toward Arhad. Ianna poured power into her legs, like she was trying to crush the earth itself underfoot, and steadied the flat of Rise’s blade against the beam.
Claaaaang!
The beam was reflected by Rise’s narrow blade and turned back toward Taylon.
Ianna stooped down ever so slightly and followed the beam toward Taylon before she suddenly changed direction and arrived at Taylon’s right leg.
Thwack!
Ianna kicked off against the earth, flew into the sky, and landed on Taylon’s right thigh.
Cruuuunch!
Tens of thousands of thorns erupted out of Taylon’s body. Ianna cut down the merciless thorns that were trying to stab her, and hundreds of hands of all shapes and sizes reached out from the sundered thorns. The hands tried to grab Ianna while she was midair and covered up the wounds from where she had cut the thorns in no time at all.
Craaaackle!
Thousands of bolts of lightning, which looked like capillary vessels that had been enlarged tens of thousands of times, crashed down above Ianna. The hands transformed into thick and slimy tentacles as large as a kraken’s and began moving about dizzyingly. Each and every tentacle oozed with the cruel intent to chase Ianna down, crush her, rip her apart, stab her, and riddle her with holes.
Ianna’s frame spun around as she drew a circle.
Slash!
Everything that touched the arc traced by her sword was severed away, even the lightning. Vines and chains and what have you emerged from every surface she cut.
Kyaaaaaaaah!
The army that had been hiding inside Taylon’s body rushed out all at once while Ianna and Taylon were fighting in the heavens and on the earth. The Allied Forces, which had been waiting at the ready on Arhad’s orders, raced forward to meet them.
It was round two.
Everyone was fighting to put this battle to an end.
But the battle between the strongest, the ones who would end the war with a decisive blow, was slow going.
The difference between fighting simply to kill and fighting while also keeping one’s opponent alive for whatever the reason was like the difference between heaven and earth. There was a good reason why Taylon had given up on trying to eat Ianna and had opted to simply kill her instead.
The situation had turned on its head. Taylon was in a mad frenzy to kill Ianna, and Ianna was trying to get back inside Taylon in order to rescue the dragons’ hearts. Ianna was obviously at the disadvantage.
But Ianna had always been prepared for this possibility, and she still had a trump card that she had been saving…….
Ianna and Arhad exchanged looks, and Arhad shot a crimson firework into the sky.
“Now.”
The Knights of Zeigellant, who had been pretending to do battle against the soldiers of Ex-knights by Taylon’s feet, suddenly turned around and grabbed Taylon’s legs. The soldiers of Ex-knights who had been battling them also threw down their weapons and clung to the bastard’s body.
Cruuunch.
The Knights of Zeigellant’s bodies expanded rapidly.
“Hold him!”
They were just about as large as Taylon’s legs now, and they tied his legs tightly with a gigantic rope that had been made especially for him. Titan was standing at the center of their ranks.
Titan and the Knights of Zeigellant were ‘giants,’ a race of people who had been living quietly at the heart of the Lotso Mountains while fighting bloody battles against the colossal monsters there ever since they were born.
The giants were a race of people who revered military might, savored victory, and worshiped Kandemayon, the strongest being there was, as a god who stood as Laos’ equal.
But one day, the giants were suddenly divided into two factions —the extremists and the orthodox— and had begun fighting amongst each other.
“Dragons are nothing but monsters. Let’s trying beating them.”
“What insolence is this?! Lord Kandemayon is a god just like Lord Laos!”
The extremists regarded Kandemayon as nothing but another monster and wanted to defeat the dragon, whereas the orthodox revered Kandemayon as a great god.
The rift between the two factions grew deeper and deeper until one day, Bahamut showed up and challenged Kandemayon. Bahamut was quickly chased away after wounding the dragon greatly, and the giants had been awed when they uncovered Bahamut’s identity.
The scary sea snake who had underwent multiple evolutions and was now even trying to defeat a dragon. Bahamut possessed tremendous potential.
The extremists had rejoiced at Bahamut’s greed, while the orthodox grew terrified. The two factions fought bitterly yet again over Bahamut.
“We’ll be able to bring the dragon down to its knees if we work with him.”
“You mustn’t work with him no matter how badly you want to defeat the dragons. That bastard……. Yes, it’s true that he may be able to defeat the dragons someday. But he’ll surely destroy the world one day too.”
The extremists had ultimately decided to follow Bahamut, dreaming only of the day they could finally defeat the dragons. They became the first Knights of Zeigellent, the Second Imperial Knight Order of Bahamut.
Conversely, the orthodox giants had stayed in the Lotso Mountains and began researching Bahamut and dragonoid monsters. They had plenty of research materials available to them because Bahamut had left behind chunks of his flesh and bones with Kandemayon.
“No monster comes even close to Bahamut when it comes to being evil, and Bahamut, the monster of greed, might even devour the dragons and become some kind of dragonoid monster even stronger than the dragons one day. What will we do once he grows that strong? He’ll lead the world to its destruction. We must find a way to stop him.”
And so, many long years had passed. Then, one day, the orthodox faction had realized that something about the world’s flow had changed.
“The time is near. We must obtain more information from outside. Go out to the human world and learn how things have changed, Titan. Learn more about what the extremists have been up to as well.”
Thus, Titan, the next leader of the giants, had departed the Lotso Mountains.
He had travelled the world and gathered information while pretending to be a naïve mercenary. Eventually, he had met Niall Sabelix, had been introduced to Arhad, and had joined Camastros as if it had been fated all along.
The black dragon that had been drawn on Titan’s —Rust’s— mask.
It symbolized both Kandemayon, whom he revered, and Bahamut, whom he must defeat.
He had not neglected to keep an eye on the extremists either.
The pure and innocent giants had been turned into Bahamut’s weapons in just a few generations. They had even lost their emotions because they were addicted to Life.
But they were still giants, and they retained their characteristic love for battling powerful foes, and they continued to dream of the day they could finally defeat the dragons because they were the descendants of the extremist faction.
Titan had faced the Knights of Zeigellent for the first time in the first battle after Ex-knights’ founding, and he had seen that it was possible to reconcile with them. So, he had continued to meet with them in secret, using the fact that they were brethren as his excuse, and he had slowly began persuading them with simple logic.
“Maybe it’s true that Bahamut will defeat the dragons one day.
“He’ll become the greatest dragonoid there ever was once he’s eaten the dragons.
“Do you want to try defeating him together once that happens?”
The Knights of Zeigellent had pondered over the question instead of answering it readily. But they harbored the desire to defeat the strongest dragon. And they secretly wanted to try challenging the Bahamut imperial family too after they had defeated the dragons together.
And, once they had been freed to some extent from their Life addiction brainwashing thanks to Ex-knights’ stimulants and inducing agents, the Knights of Zeigellent had promised to cooperate.
“We’re using that skill!”
And so, right now, the Knights of Zeigellent were standing against Taylon, the strongest and greatest dragonoid who was an amalgamation of Kandemayon and the dragons of the four corners, in accordance with their greatest ambitions. They were joined by the orthodox giants that Titan had brought with him, and it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that the giants had finally been reunified this day.
[I’ve always known that you bastards would turn on me.]
Taylon sneered at the giants as he mercilessly crushed them underfoot. The giants may have researched dragonoids extensively and were seasoned warriors each, but they were no different than ants before Taylon.
But that teeny tiny opening they had created had turned into an opportunity for Ianna.
Ianna’s sword fell down upon Taylon’s back while carrying the great power to Rend through not only the flesh but also the soul.
Poooooooow!
Black smoke erupted from the wound that Ianna had gorged into Taylon’s flesh.
“Let’s go!”
Ianna grabbed Elly by the wrist while the girl was circling around her and jumped inside the wound.
The world inside Taylon’s body was a right mess.
Buzzzzzzz!
Black holes appeared all over the place and tried to drive Ianna out. Taylon could not digest Ianna, and he would be at the disadvantage so long as she was inside his body.
Ianna continued to run only forward as she resisted the pull of the black holes.
“Elly!”
“Yes!”
The chaos fell neatly into order as Elly busily moved around her fingers. A sturdy road was created by Ianna’s feet, and the distance to her intended destination was drastically shortened.
Terranodin’s heart of hellfire.
Flames so hot they threatened to burn Ianna and Elly to death flared up as soon as they drew near.
Ianna thrust her sword into the center of the flames without a moment’s hesitation. The flames burst out and away from her sword, and a crimson heart that was flaming like a campfire appeared in the resulting empty space.
Frillianu’s heart of ice and snow.
An ocean colder than ice filled the world to the brim. It swallowed Ianna and Elly as it tried to freeze their flesh, blood, bones, and hearts with its chill.
Ianna poured power into the hand she was holding her sword with and sharpened her battle spirit. The ocean evaporated and revealed an azure heart that was radiating the cold.
Gamadaian’s heart of earth.
The earth was quaking viciously. The land was shredded apart, and waves of soil came rushing down like a landslide.
Ianna raised her sword up high and struck it into the ground. The earth split into two and uncovered the heavy brown heart that had been buried deep within.
Millanikonè’s heart of forest and wind.
A colossal growing vine of thorns tried to grab hold of Ianna. Storms raged, and so many tornados rushed toward Ianna that she could not see her surroundings.
Ianna spun around as she drew a circle. The vines and gales were swept away and scattered, leaving behind a lightweight yellowish-green heart in the eye of the storm.
“Gasp, gasp!”
Elly quickly retrieved each heart as it appeared as immediately created a path onto the next. She wanted so badly to take back their souls too, but she had to be satisfied with just taking back their hearts because Taylon refused to relinquish their souls.
“Phew!”
Ianna let out a ragged breath because, although it had been a relatively simple fight, she had ended up consuming a lot of physical and mental stamina. It had not been easy to negate the dragon’s powers because Taylon’s power had been mixed into them.
Kandemayon’s heart of chaos was the last one left.
Elly created a path. But just as Ianna was about to run down it.
Swooooooooosh!
The mighty power of Chaos suddenly swooped down on them.
“Watch out!”
Elly pushed Ianna aside. And the chaos, which had fallen over them like the darkness of night, reduced Elly’s body to fine dust. Elly’s soul and the four dragons’ hearts were on the brink of extinction because the impact had been so fierce.
“Pull yourself together, Elly!”
Elly woke up when Ianna screamed at her, and she created a new body for herself with every last drop of strength she had in her soul. But her newly created body was pulverized once more because of the chaos that was filling the area.
“Ugh…….”
Elly tried to recreate her body multiple times, but she was unable to resist the power of chaos that Taylon was intentionally casting at her and groaned.
Kandemayon’s Chaos was the power of death that turned everything into disorder. And this power was only made even more terrifying now that Taylon had added his will to it and was accelerating time.
Taylon had been waiting for an opening while Ianna rescued the dragons’ hearts and he had not missed his chance to attack, so about half of Ianna’s flesh had rotted away too.
Hahaha…….
Hahahahaha…….
Hahahahahahahaha…….
The entirety of the chaos sneered at Ianna as a gap opened up in spacetime. The chaos dropped Elly and Ianna sideways as it tried to push Ianna into the gap.
It was trying to not only wrest back the four dragon hearts that Elly had retrieved but also devour Elly’s soul too. Ianna took hold of Elly and did everything in her power to keep herself from being pushed through the gap.
Will you let yourself be eaten by me too……?
The chaos twisted Ianna’s arm and strangled her.
“Bullshit.”
Ianna held her sword upright.
Kandemayon’s heart of chaos was waiting at the end of the path. Elly was desperately maintaining the path even as her own body crumbled apart hundreds and thousands of times.
‘It’s okay. I can do this.’
Taylon still did not truly know just how powerful Ianna’s will was despite having suffered for it so many times.
Ianna tucked Elly under her arm and began to run. The power of chaos pushed against her. But Ianna continued running even as her flesh was crushed and her bones were grinded down.
You asshole…….
Taylon was basically cheering Ianna on as he cursed in his bewilderment.
Ianna reached the end of the path in no time at all.
Kandemayon’s heart of chaos.
The infinite chaos was melted into space as it awaited Ianna. The chaos, dyed with Taylon’s malice, desperately tried to extinguish Ianna completely.
Ianna concentrated her focus. Her unyielding mind remained unshaken even as her very bones were grinded into nothingness.
Ianna had previously Rent the Balance itself. She could Rend this nothingness called Chaos as many times as she pleased. Ianna believed in herself. Her body was blackened and rotting away, but only her eyes shined with a brilliant crimson.
The sword that could Rend Nothingness.
It was the power of Existence.
Ianna took a deep breath and observed the chaos as she poured her strength into her sword and brought it down from up high. Nothing and no one could stop her as she Rent everything in the world.
Boom!
The chaos split into two, unable to extinguish the force behind her swing.
The heart of chaos appeared with a black vortex from within. Ianna frantically approached the heart, grabbed it, and pushed it toward Elly, who was still dangling at her side. Elly accepted the heart with quivering fingers and swallowed it into herself.
Ianna quickly turned to the gap that Taylon had created in an attempt to drive her out now that she was done rescuing the hearts. She had thought that he would’ve closed it by now for sure, but it was still open because Taylon had been stunned by the shock of losing Kandemayon’s heart.
Ianna held Elly tight as she sent the both of them flying. Ianna saw Taylon, who had finally returned to his senses, closing the gap just as she made it back to the outside world. She had made it by the skin of her teeth.
[You really think I’ll let you go?!]
But Taylon refused to let Ianna go.
A black aura fell over Ianna and swallowed her whole. Ianna almost looked like she was trapped inside a black bubble as she plummeted. The black aura dreadfully hindered her ability to handle divine power.
Baaaang!
“Kgh.”
Ianna ended up slamming down to the ground back-first because she was too busy protecting Elly, who had passed out, and then she was flung back up upon recoil. She was assaulted by a force that seemed to shatter every bone in her body.
Ianna blinked. It was dark around her in every sense of the word. Ianna could not get healed even though she was outside because Taylon’s black aura was temporarily keeping the spirits in check.
But this was still better than being stuck inside him. Ianna clenched her teeth together as she forcefully restored her body with her own divine power. She couldn’t heal herself completely, but she could at least move. She would’ve been in big trouble had she never learned how to restore her body with only her divine power.
[Die.]
An incredible weight began to push down on her from above.
Ianna laid Elly down behind her and jumped up, held her sword horizontally, and pushed back.
Booooooom!
A colossal power crashed down against her sword. It was Taylon’s foot. The overbearing power tried to crush Ianna underfoot.
Drip, driiip.
Thick tentacles dripped down from the darkness and rushed toward Ianna like a swarm of maggots. The maggots climbed up Ianna’s legs, bite into her flesh, and drank her blood.
“No!”
Elly wrapped her hands in white aura and desperately beat the maggots away. The maggots were vaporized and melted away when Elly touched them, but there was no end to them.
Ianna pushed all of her divine power into her sword. The powerful red and black clashed against each other as they tried to determine the victor of their contest of strength.
It was only obvious that Ianna, who was unwell, was at the absolute disadvantage. It wasn’t long before the black aura began to erode into her crimson divine power like needles.
Ianna’s hands trembled.
Cold sweat poured down her brow.
‘I won’t lose.’
I’m going to lose after coming all this way, not even to Arhad but to you?
“Don’t be ridiculous!”
Just then, the precious golden divine power that Ianna had been cherishing inside her heart burst out on its own accord and climbed up her arms. The golden light enveloped her hands like it was caressing her as it slowly seeped inside her sword, mixing into the crimson.
A brilliant light brighter than the resplendence of the sun burst forth from Ianna’s sword. The light awakened Ianna’s consciousness and added strength to her sword. The light in Ianna’s eyes wavered.
‘Arhad…….’
Taylon’s power recoiled from Ianna’s sword for some reason. The lump of darkness seemed to have grown less dense too. And the maggots had been drastically reduced in number. The golden divine power even found openings in the lump of darkness and pried it open as it flowed into Ianna’s sword and supported her.
‘Arhad is outside.’
This fact gave her strength.
“Argh.”
Ianna was given a second wind as she gritted her teeth and slowly pushed back the black aura, which contained everything that Taylon was. Ianna’s eyes, blazing with her fighting spirit, were burning in the same radiant light as her sword.
The battle outside was just about wrapping up while Ianna struggled desperately. The Allied Forces had the advantage because Taylon’s forces had suffered too many losses during their first skirmish, and it wasn’t difficult for the Allied Forces to seize their victory.
It had been difficult to face the powerful monsters and the Knights of Pakalatua that Taylon was empowering.
But Schneider and Angelina had led Roanne’s forces and cleaned up the monsters one by one, and the Knights of Pakalatua, which had already suffered serious losses thanks to Arhad’s efforts, had been put down one after another by the Knights of Rise, the elite forces of Ex-knights whom Ianna had trained viciously.
Meanwhile, however, the people had witnessed Ianna falling and how Taylon had trapped her inside his black aura.
Baaaang!
A bone-chilling shockwave spread out everywhere.
And, immediately after, Taylon had stomped on the lump of darkness with his gigantic foot.
Arhad had flown to Taylon’s leg while everyone else remained dumbstruck. The lump of darkness that Ianna was trapped inside withstood the weight without being crushed.
Arhad took a deep breath and poured every last drop of his aura into his sword.
Craaaack!
His sword pieced into the center of Taylon’s foot.
[Kgh!]
The fortification that Arhad extended from his sword pierced directly through Taylon’s foot and formed cracks over the lump of darkness.
Arhad flooded the lump of darkness that Taylon was trying to crush underfoot, in which Ianna was still trapped inside, with his golden divine power like a cataract. His divine power was incompatible with Taylon’s, and the resulting clash shocked Taylon. But Taylon ignored the pain and focused solely on killing Ianna as he continued to press down with his foot.
“W-what do we do?”
“Do we need to fight?”
Everyone had stopped in their terror. It was already taking their full strength just to battle Taylon’s armies. Even the giants had exhausted their strength while trying to hold Taylon down and had collapsed over the ground.
“But even if we helped…….”
They had already resigned themselves to the fact that there was no point in them attacking Taylon, no matter how desperately, when Taylon was ignoring even Arhad’s attacks.
Meanwhile, however, a certain group of knights were glaring furiously as they began to race toward Taylon.
“Let’s go!”
They were the Knights of Rise.
They were willing to die as they clung to Taylon’s colossal frame.
Pow! Pow!
Their swords, imbued with the divine power of life, stabbed Taylon’s body like tiny needles. But Taylon couldn’t have cared any less about the ants that were biting him.
“Die, you monster!”
The Knights of Rise had taken the lead, and any warriors who had finished cleaning up the areas under their charge rushed toward Taylon too.
“Get up!”
Titan beat the giants awake, and the giants grasped the situation immediately and squeezed every last drop of power they had left to jump up to their feet. They clung to Taylon once again and began beating him with their gigantic weapons.
Rumbleeee!
The mages and divine arts users had determined that smaller attacks would be futile, so they worked together to cast the biggest large-scale spells they knew and rained them down upon Taylon.
“Lord Brother!”
“I know!”
Schneider and Angelina took each other’s hand and reached out toward Taylon with the other.
Flutterrrrr!
Millions of silver glowing birds flew toward Taylon, obscuring his vision and riddling his body with holes as they struck him like comets.
Taylon’s eyes were beginning to dye with irritation.
It was annoying that he could no longer ignore the ants when they put aside their fear and came at him all at once with their full might.
“Go, Herrace!”
Herrace jumped out from the center Knights of Rise just then.
Herrace was the bravest, could hold out the longest, and had the greatest concentration, and he became the heart of the Knights of Rise’s formation. Konya and the rest of his colleagues, who were working with him as fellow members of the knight order, became as his footholds.
Poooow!
Herrace carried not only his own divine power but the divine power of the entire Knights of Rise as he struck a biting blow into Taylon’s leg.
[You insects!]
Taylon remembered Herrace, who had gotten in his way once before. He grew ever fatigued by the ants’ incessant attacks, and his rage exploded. Numerous mouths appeared on the leg before Herrace and shot out beams and spells with the intent of taking Herrace’s head.
Pow!
Herrace only just managed to defend himself, and he was rendered half-unconscious as he was sent flying into Roanne’s lines. But there was already someone there waiting for him. He had been watching over Herrace from beginning to end, and he had precisely pinpointed where Herrace would land and was there to catch him.
“Thank you…….”
Herrace staggered and shook his head vigorously before he looked up to see who had caught him. It was someone whom he had never expected to see. He continued,
“Lord……Brother?”
It was Travis, who had been working with the rest of Roanne’s forces.
Arhad beat back most of the beams that Taylon continued sending after Herrace in his rage, Gellonian came running to stop anything that made it past Arhad, and Travis stopped anything else that made it past both Arhad and Gellonian.
“Stop spacing out and get back to your feet. We’ll end up suffering a huge loss of power unless you go back.”
“Y-yes. You’re right.”
Herrace looked like he wasn’t quite sure if he was dreaming or not as he heard Travis speaking to him calmly, but he thanked Travis again anyway and ran back to the Knights of Rise.
“Yaaaargh!”
They were each so small and weak when compared against Taylon. But together, they were enough to tip the precarious equilibrium between Ianna and Taylon.
Booooom!
The black aura that was being neutralized beneath Taylon’s foot eventually shattered. It was like the stars had erupted from inside as a radiant light burst forth from within.
[Ughhh!]
The light became as a gigantic harpoon and penetrated Taylon from foot to crown in one go, wounding him grievously.
Then, Ianna jumped out with Elly in her arms. She found Arhad by instinct and collapsed to her knees.
Baaang!
Taylon immediately counterattacked, but Arhad parried him readily. He was confident that he would lose to no one when it came to defending.
Arhad took Ianna and Elly in his arms and teleported them over to a mountain that was far away from where Taylon was.
“A-Ar…had.”
The wounds reappeared on Ianna’s body as the divine power she had been using to temporarily hold her body together scattered away. Arhad didn’t say anything, but the extent of Ianna’s wounds made him feel faint.
“T-treatment……,”
Ianna said as she quivered, and the spirits came immediately.
[Ahh, Iannaaaaaa! Ellyyyyy!]
[How horrible!]
The spirits were crying as they poured all their strength into Ianna and Elly.
Ianna clutched her aching head once she had been healed.
“I survived.”
She wasn’t normally one to say things like this, but Ianna truly felt like she had escaped death’s clutches this time.
She sat down for a moment before she stood back up with Rise in hand. She had successfully retrieved all the hearts, and her body had recovered too. All that was left now was to deal with Taylon.
She could see Taylon suffering in the distance. There was only empty space surrounding Taylon because Arhad had pulled back their forces as soon as Ianna had been successfully rescued.
[K……gh.]
Taylon was acting strange. His body was swelling unevenly like it was about to burst. He had probably overloaded himself.
But it made sense. He had been using most of the hearts to control the souls of the dead and everything else he had devoured, but one of the hearts had been destroyed and the rest had been taken from him. It was difficult for him to control everything now that all he had left was his own heart and Isabella’s.
Moreover, Ianna had struck a fatal blow on his heart —there was no way he was getting out of that unscathed.
“Ughhh.”
Elly returned to her senses, sat up, and reached out toward Taylon. Then, countless souls slipped free from Taylon’s body and began returning to her side. The souls looked so liberated now that they were free from Taylon’s control.
But many of those souls refused to accept Elly’s guidance and returned to Taylon’s body instead. The souls were instinctively furious with Taylon for oppressing them even though they were unconscious. The clung to his soul and made it heavier and heavier.
Ianna observed Taylon’s soul with her mind’s eye. The dragons’ souls had broken free from Taylon’s control and were struggling against him. But Taylon desperately refused to let them go. He had no choice, since Ianna would defeat him as soon as he lost the dragons.
Ianna’s eyes glistened just then.
Ianna’s final attack had set a spark inside Taylon’s body and had grown into a humongous blaze. The fires scorched Taylon’s body and soul and spread as it searched for his heart.
Ianna’s eyes were glistening as she held up her sword.
‘I see it.
‘I see where his heart is!’
Equilibrium had already been broken. No one had known how the battle between Ianna and Taylon would end, but everyone else’s small strength and supplemented Ianna’s and had tipped the scales in her favor.
But just as Ianna was about to pour power into her feet. Taylon’s undulating body suddenly came to a halt.
Taylon raised his head and looked directly back at Ianna. And Ianna looked directly back at the lunatic.
Taylon’s world, which had been seized with confusion, settled down in an instant. The bastard seemed to have come to some kind of conclusion and he squashed all resistance with a will so strong that it was almost bizarre. The greed in his eyes turned on Ianna as it rose to the epitome of obsession.
And, in that very moment, Ianna felt a chill that seemed to cool down her entire being. It made her instinctively seek for warmth.
“Arhad.”
Ianna reached out to Arhad. She continued,
“Please give me your divine power.”
Arhad gave Ianna his divine power without a word.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Taylon tore off the souls that were clinging to his body as he made his way toward Ianna. No one else registered in his vision.
Ianna was no longer by Arhad’s side. She had quickly and lithely raced down the mountain with her restored body.
Arhad sensed the danger coming from Taylon and poured his full might into creating a barrier around Ianna and Taylon.
Their forces would have suffer unimaginable losses from Taylon’s madness had Arhad been even a second later in his defense.
Earth, hellfire, ice and snow, hurricanes, sound, space, lightning, control, dolls, psychic……Taylon was using every kind of offensive spell that existed in the world.
He also created a storm of uncountable black lances, longswords, daggers, knives, arrows, halberds, bombs —he created every type of weapon that existed in the world.
All of his attacks targeted Ianna and Ianna alone.
Taylon’s body scattered into smoke just before he and Ianna clashed. The souls of the dead that were still under Taylon’s control were flung aside at once and rushed toward Ianna. They included the egoless souls of the dragons in their number.
An astronomical number of clumps of chaos fell upon Ianna like corrupted drops of rain. The clumps of chaos carried the malice and the power of dismantlement from the records of ruin that Taylon had swallowed from the Akashic Records.
Space distorted, and time circled in place after having lost its direction.
An entire world had been formed just for the purpose of killing Ianna.
All Ianna had was herself and the singular sword that had become as one with her —Rise.
But her sword was filled to the brim with the life she had lived with so many others, the warm and powerful feelings that she had shared with them, and the deep love that she shared with Arhad.
“Hwooo…….”
Ianna took a deep breath and imbued her sword with divine power. Arhad’s bright light glowed from within her colossal flame, and her power became as a resplendent light as it stretched over her sword.
Her eyes were shining as she peered through Taylon’s true nature. The flames that she had planted inside him would never extinguish as they created a path to guide her.
Ianna held her sword tight.
I will Rend apart my enemies with this sword!
She brandished her sword in a large arc.
Pooooooooooooow!
A trail of light bisected the entire world. Any enemy that the light touched was Rent apart without knowing any better and went extinct. The light passed harmlessly through any innocent souls. Ianna’s fortification Rent only her enemies, and all it did to the innocent souls was to free them from the control that was oppressing them.
The light reached just before Taylon’s heart. Taylon sensed the imminent danger and wrapped all the power he had around his heart. He struggled to locate Ianna as the blinding light obscured his vision.
Pow!
Ianna had flown over to him like a bird and had already stabbed him in the heart by the time he finally found her again.
[K……gh.]
The Heart-Sharing spell that he had been exercising over Arhad’s and the dragons’ hearts disconnected from the incredible shock.
Baaaaaang!
The aura of the sun exploded as it burst open Taylon’s gigantic body. Everything that had broken free from his control and had been waiting only to escape his world burst free and returned to where they were meant to be. The dragons, the souls of the dead, the records from the Akashic Records, the earth and the skies, and even time and space!
“You guys!”
Elly planted the dragons’ hearts into their souls as they flew to her.
Cruuuunch!
The dragons recreated their original forms once they were reunited with their hearts.
The liberated dragons spun circles in the heavens as they stitched the skies back together. The people’s gazes were stolen away by the mystical scene.
Only Arhad kept his eyes glued on Ianna and Taylon. So many things had been freed from Taylon, and Taylon was surely dying as he grew weaker, and yet the spacetime around Taylon and Ianna was still distorted in a way that prevent Arhad from seeing it clearly.
Creeeeeak!
A powerful gale so strong that even Ianna found it difficult to withstand was blowing before her. She wanted to pull out her sword, but she could not free it from Taylon’s chest. Taylon’s chest, which Ianna was standing on, held a vice grip over her feet and her soul.
‘What the hell……?’
Ianna maintained her tension as she observed the numerous transformations that Taylon’s body underwent. Taylon’s body transformed into all sorts of things until everything he had eaten finally broke free from him and he returned to being the humanoid shape that Ianna was so familiar with.
Only ‘Taylon’ alone remained at Ianna’s feet now. He vomited blood. The bastard was undoubtedly dying.
“I’m going to die.”
But Taylon spat out poison and grabbed tightly to Ianna’s sword with both hands even as he died. He continued,
“But I refuse to go alone.”
The entirety of Taylon’s will was directed solely at Ianna.
Ianna’s heart stopped for a moment when she was assaulted by the unwitting cold. Her body and soul stood stiffly at edge as she sensed the sudden strange chill. The world around them was dyed white, and time itself had stopped.
“So, let’s go together.”
And Ianna finally understood what was happening to her.
This was Taylon’s ‘power.’
His dreadful will to kill Ianna had been molded into his power of ‘Mutual Destruction.’ Ianna had been wondering why he had acted so strangely just before their final clash, and this was apparently why.
Time began to break away from Ianna’s body.
Powers did not work on those who were stronger than the caster. But, in his bitter insistence that he would take Ianna down with him even if it meant sacrificing his own life, Taylon’s will had grown so strong that it was now no weaker than Ianna’s. Time was slowly vanishing from Ianna even as she resisted it.
Ianna opened her pallid and slowly stiffening lips.
“Shut up with your bullshit and just die alone.”
I’m going to put an end to you here and now.
I’m going to live in this world happily with him and with everyone else.
A small flame flickered into life as Ianna slowly froze. It was Arhad’s divine power, which had not been affected by Taylon’s power.
Shaaaa…….
The veil of spacetime that Taylon’s power had created started ripping apart from where the flame was, and powers of all colors began to rush inside. Each clump of divine power, as small as the flickering of fireflies, was filled with the wills of those who wished for Ianna to live.
The will of Existence sustained Ianna’s world and stopped it from crumbling to death. It stuffed time back inside Ianna’s body and became as her strength.
But Taylon had only ever destroyed others as he frantically climbed ever upward, and no one was there to support him.
“Hah…….”
Taylon was despondent. He had sacrificed his life itself to obtain this power, and yet he was still being pushed back by Ianna all because of the small-fry that he had never paid much attention to.
And this wasn’t even the only time that he had inadvertently given Ianna an opening because he had been hindered by those lowly things.
“Ridiculous.”
Miniscule weights no bigger than a speck had broken the great equilibrium between Ianna and Taylon and had tipped the scales in her favor. Tayon neither wanted to understand nor accept what had happened, but this was the undeniable truth.
“You always stepped on others to climb up, so you should’ve known that they could always step over you in return.”
Ianna poured all her power and the power that everyone had given her into her sword.
Taylon’s heart twitched.
He smirked in the face of death.
“I still don’t agree with your disgusting idea of justice.”
He refused to change even as he died. He continued,
“But I was ultimately defeated because of your disgusting justice, so I acknowledge the fact that my idea of justice was wrong and that you were right.”
And yet, he acknowledged it.
He had no choice but to acknowledge it, because he believed that might made right.
“I’ve lost.”
Pow!
Taylon’s heart, which had been enduring everything for the sole purpose of killing Ianna, was unable to endure any longer and shattered into pieces.
Pshhhhh…….
His body turned into dust and crumbled away.
Taylon Helkan Bahamut, who had pushed the world to its destruction, had finally passed away.
“Ianna!”
Ianna’s world returned to normal as someone called her name.
Whoaaaaaaa!
A great cry of victory shook the earth.
Arhad pulled Ianna tightly into his arms. Ianna let out a long sigh as she collapsed against him. She hugged him back and buried her face against his neck.
It was over.
“Are you finally complete?”
Ianna wanted to rest comfortably in Arhad’s arms. She wanted to listen to the healthy beating of his heart, which should finally be whole again, grow drunk on his golden aura, which was hotter than ever before, and savor his soul, which should finally be complete.
“Er…”
Arhad gently pried Ianna off with a troubled look on his face. He continued,
“Some other bastard who was inside Taylon’s body took my soul. I wasn’t able to keep track of it because you looked like you might be in danger.”
Ianna frowned.
‘What?’
To think that the other half of Arhad’s soul, which was the most important thing to Ianna, hadn’t returned to him.
Ianna quickly figured out why and clutched her head.
“So Isabella still lives.”
Isabella had predicted Taylon’s defeat as soon as his control was broken, and she had quietly slipped out of her lord brother’s body with her heart and the Demon’s fragment.
“Shit!”
She was climbing up a mountain. There was no point in fleeing, but she still fled anyway. She needed to hide. She couldn’t simply die like this. She had to survive and revive the Bahamut lineage……!
Isabella stopped in her tracks.
“Shit……!”
Her features distorted. Buckets of sweat dribbled down her face. Her greatest enemy, the one person she absolutely didn’t want to see right now, was standing right before her very eyes.
Ianna kicked off against the earth as she dashed toward Isabella. Isabella didn’t even have the time to cast a single spell. She quickly pulled out the dagger she had brought back from Taylon’s body.
Clang!
The two blades scattered sparks as they clashed. Ianna’s sword slid down toward Isabella’s wrist. Isabella swung her dagger hard and tried to beat Ianna’s sword away.
But she found herself flung backward instead.
Isabella somersaulted in midair in order to dampen some of the shock and began to teleport as she immediately tried to escape.
But Ianna broke apart her arrangement for Teleport with one swing of her sword, and Isabella found herself flying backward once again.
Isabella swung her dagger hard as a chill ran down her back.
Clang!
This was their third clash.
Ianna’s eyes glistened frigidly, Isabella gasped, and Ianna’s sword hit Isabella’s dagger skyward and ripped it out from her hands —all in just a single moment.
“Ugh.”
Isabella kicked off against the earth and fled into the sky. But Ianna’s eyes did not miss Isabella’s trajectory, and she prepared to jump after her.
Isabella quickly summoned some hellfire fireballs and hurled them at Ianna. Dozens of powerful fireballs rushed toward Ianna, each with different trajectories.
Ianna brought her sword to the center of a fireball.
Piiiiing!
The spherical fireball split in half and scattered open like a blossoming flower as soon as it touched Ianna’s sword. The other fireballs fared no better. The hellfire fireballs slid off from Ianna like a snake’s shed and exploded behind her.
Ianna used that opening to kick off against the earth. Dust and broken rock danced around her.
Crimson hair split through the wind as it fluttered in the air, and Ianna’s eyes met Isabella’s as the latter’s black hair floated upward just as she was about to plummet down. It took no time at all for Ianna to catch up to Isabella.
“You……!”
Ianna’s sword drew a long, diagonal line as Isabella’s eyes were dyed with fear.
Slaaaash!
Isabella was cut deeply from shoulder to waist.
“……Ah…….”
Her blood slowly embroidered the air. Isabella’s vision turned red. Her entire being throbbed from the shock. And then, a dry agony overtook her as if she was being burned alive.
And, in that very moment, Isabella resigned herself to fate.
‘It’s over. There’s no way I can beat this woman.’
It felt so empty.
“Where do you suppose is our ending, Lord Brother?”
They had desperately grown stronger and stronger until they had finally become the strongest, and yet their ending was ever so humble.
They had nothing left now that they had lost. They had crushed underfoot and devoured everything in order to climb up, and they had no choice but to lose everything and fall now that they had been defeated just once.
Blood poured out from Isabella’s fresh wound like crimson flower petals.
Thuuump!
Isabella plummeted quickly and crashed down to earth like a dead raven. The earth caved from the impact.
Isabella’s wound spilled a spiderweb of blood over the earth. The hard earth refused to accept her, and her body was flung up from the recoil and fell down again.
Isabella convulsed. The empty spaced between the spiderweb was slowly being filled with wet, crimson blood.
Ianna landed safely next to her.
Isabella coughed up blood. Her blood fell back down to the earth like drops of rain and shattered. Her face was pallid as she smiled one last time.
“Damn……you! Fine then, good for you!”
“Well, isn’t this a clean conclusion?”
Ianna’s sword was dyed with flames.
And she stabbed it directly down into Isabella’s heart.
Shaaaaa!
Ianna’s divine power clashed against the black aura filling Isabella’s body to the brim, which was incompatible with Ianna, and burst into flames.
Isabella’s eyes lost their light.
It was her utter defeat.
Shhhh…….
Isabella’s body turned into powder as if it was being burned away and extinguished. Only her bloodstains proved that she had ever existed here, and even they would fade away with time.
Ianna closed her eyes and parted her lips to let out a long sigh.
She had finally slain the last raven.
Ianna steadied her breathing as she returned Rise to its sheathe.
Click!
“…….”
Then, she turned to the soul that had lost its way and was rubbing itself against her arm.
It was the other half of Arhad’s soul.
“Let’s go back to your real owner now.”
The soul jumped into Ianna’s arms, and Ianna caressed it gently in her fingers. She turned around to go back only to find her love.
Arhad was breathing hard as he caught up to Ianna.
“Here you are.”
Ianna pushed the half of Arhad’s soul to him.
“…….”
Arhad reached out to the hesitant soul. The soul jumped up like a lost child who had been wandering for a very long time and had finally found his way home and seeped into Arhad’s fingers.
Arhad closed his eyes.
His soul was finally complete.
The birds began to chirp brightly from somewhere on the quiet mountain. Azure blue and brilliant light began to settle in the sky as it filtered through the tree leaves.
Ianna blinked as she turned to the eastern sky.
Darkness had faded from the heavens, and morning was on its way.
“The sun is rising.”
The Dark Age was over, and the Age of Light was now beginning.
—“Darkness and Light” End
ToC Chapter 36