novelraw Chapter 147 : Chapter 147
Chapter 147 : Chapter 147
Chapter 147: Buried in the Black Sea, Countless Questions (4)
TWANG—!
A curve tore across the empty air.
At the center of Nodens’ vision, an arrowhead was etched into view. It was a bolt fired from Abel’s repeating crossbow. Using that as his marker, Nodens charged forward. He could not dodge. There were children behind him. THUD. His footprints stamped down atop the rushing water, and at the same time—
A glint brushed against the saw blade.
Nodens swung his right arm.
The saw blade that had replaced his hand struck the arrowhead, and in that instant,
BOOOOM—!
Blooming heat.
The bolt detonated, flames surging upward.
So hot. Forcing his way through the fire, Nodens thought as much. It must have been because his outer shell had been damaged. The heat biting into his exposed flesh was vivid. Even so, he could not retreat. This space had been severed from the outside by the Demon King. There was no escape route.
‘That is right.’
Abel swept his gaze through the air as he thought.
With his left hand, he repeatedly pulled the trigger of the repeating crossbow.
‘This place is an arena created by the Demon King.’
A single hole.
At some point, a hole had appeared in the sky.
It looked like a pitch-black mire. The thick storm clouds were being sucked into it. Abel knew what it was. The Demon King’s eye. The Demon King’s gaze itself, looking down upon the world. If this was an arena with no retreat, then the Demon King was its sole spectator.
“──Where are you looking!”
In that instant, a saw blade lunged toward Abel.
CLANG. Abel blocked Nodens’ strike.
Their momentum collided head-on. Sharpening their gazes, Abel and Nodens faced one another.
“I asked you questions.”
Nodens spoke, casting down a face that resembled Abel’s.
“I asked you four questions.”
What is duty.
What is heritage.
What is reform.
What is mourning.
“Go on. Answer me.”
Did those exist in the land you wish to protect?
Were there those who valued duty? Those who did not abandon heritage? Those who sought and attempted reform?
Were there those who mourned?
Speak! Were there those who mourned the children?
Say that there truly were, that those you wish to protect are worth letting live──,
“──Can you answer me or not!”
“There are none.”
There is no such thing as worthiness to survive.
Abel whispered so. Nodens’ face, blocking his view, was twisted. And so Abel smiled bitterly. Nodens must have imitated him without fail, yet that face was stained with emotions Abel had carried long ago.
Vivid rage.
That was something that had worn away long before now.
“I do not assign value to life.”
Duty is broken.
Heritage is destroyed.
Reform fails.
Mourning can never be eternal.
“Is that not so, Nodens? You understand this, do you not?”
Abel extended Vanessa Spencer’s crossbow.
He placed the sights upon Nodens’ face, upon the face that resembled his own, and then—
“You possess conviction.”
You possess conviction equal to my own, he whispered, and at the same time,
THUD!
Detonating flames.
Nodens hastily retreated.
Abel was a step faster. A bolt lodged itself in the center of Nodens’ forehead. Flames surged upward as Nodens’ entire body began to burn. However, the writhing mire that ruled the sky—the Demon King’s gaze—was fixed upon Nodens.
“Our positions are the same.”
Abel muttered, watching the burning Nodens.
“We simply stand in different directions.”
A moment would suffice.
Nodens’ body was regenerating rapidly. It was thanks to the Demon King watching over him.
Unless the Core was pierced, he would regenerate again and again. Abel had no time to spare. The black fog settling over the Black Sea obstructed his breathing. Just as it was difficult to endure the domains of the Main Gods, the Demon King’s breath was constricting Abel.
“Monsters and created beings cannot coexist. They can only encroach upon one another’s lands.”
Suddenly, clusters of resonating light filled the surroundings.
Abel looked around. Dark crimson glows encircled him in scattered points. KRRK, KRRK. The corpses of the Banshees floating atop the Black Sea were moving. Their Cores had been restored, their eyes gleaming.
“You as the knight of monsters, and I as the knight of created beings…….”
──KRRRRK!
And so, the horde of Banshees advanced toward Abel.
“You know this already.”
Abel moved.
He tilted the crossbow toward the charging Banshees.
THUD, THUD, THUD! Explosives detonated, flames leaping upward. Through the gaps in the fire, Banshees’ maws opened wide. A Banshee resembling an enraged woman bared her scorched teeth, and the repeating crossbow in Abel’s hands was flung onto the waves—
“Even if I must become utterly irreverent…….”
At his feet lay Leon Baibars’ magic staff.
Abel seized it and thrust his arm forward. He jammed the tip of the staff into the Banshee’s maw and activated the spell stored within.
“We must protect our respective worlds.”
CRACK—!
The Banshee’s body shattered into pieces.
It was the result of ‘Air Curtain,’ a defensive spell. A translucent barrier unfolded around the tip of the staff, expanded outward, and tore the Banshee apart.
‘So that is it.’
Meanwhile, Nodens watched.
He watched as he shook off the flames.
‘He cuts.’
The sight of Abel striding through the swarm of Banshees.
At a glance, it looked like a straight line. Explosives, spells, and sword strikes. Abel pressing his offensive appeared like a single line segment. Was it because his movements were too fast to follow, leaving only their trajectory vivid? No, it was different. Nodens was not watching Abel’s movements. He was glimpsing his conviction.
‘Cuts. Cuts. Cuts.’
Nothing but cutting.
That alone must be that man’s conviction.
That was why he appeared as nothing more than a straight line.
‘Other than cutting…….’
Nodens lowered his head.
He reached up and touched his own face. The reflection faintly visible in the Black Sea was grotesque. Skin melted and peeling from the flames, muscles flushed red, the surface of bone glimpsed here and there. Nodens’ face was being clumsily restored. Yet it resembled him. It still resembled him. He had even replicated conviction.
‘……Because there is nothing else he can do.’
Because he resembled him, he could understand.
The ideology his opponent held.
-Run, Nodens.
-Run, Nodens.
-Run, Nodens.
Therefore, he could not retreat.
Turning his gaze backward, Nodens hardened his expression.
The towering wall of flesh, and the children who formed it, were looking at Nodens. They spoke in unison.
-You are still alive.
-You are still alive.
-You are still alive.
Every child, without exception, was alive.
“──This is not a matter of good and evil.”
Abel’s voice rang out suddenly.
Nodens moved at once.
He thrust out his saw blade and met Abel’s strike.
“You with yours, and I with mine──.”
CLANG.
The sound of metal etched into the air.
“Everything that threatens our respective worlds…….”
BOOOOM—!
The shockwave of clashing blades shook the Black Sea.
The wave spread in a circle, shoving the currents aside. The surging water rose high, then fell in droplets. SPLASH, SPLASH. Black droplets rained down over Abel and Nodens. Abel honed Abel’s arms, Nodens honed Nodens’, as they faced each other.
“We can only cut down…….”
“……That which exists.”
CRACK.
Cracks spread across Nodens’ saw blade.
Maurice de Olfrange’s Sword Breaker.
It was crushing Nodens’ weapon.
“I have children I must protect.”
Nodens muttered through clenched teeth.
Aura was etched into the saw blade on the verge of shattering.
Pitch-black light began to envelop it, and—
“I do as well.”
Abel wore a faint smile.
With Nodens’ saw blade fixed in place by the Sword Breaker, Abel poured aura into the beloved sword in his right hand. The moment white light engulfed the blade,
“……I have precious disciples.”
KABOOM—!
Black and white auras collided.
With a thunderous roar, Nodens’ body was hurled upward, shoved back by the shockwave. Abel was no different. Gliding far back, Abel landed in a ready stance. He tossed away the Sword Breaker in his left hand, then wrapped both hands around the hilt of his beloved sword and charged forward.
-No.
-No.
-No.
So it is time for the conclusion.
Stepping upon the Black Sea, Nodens thought.
The saw blade that formed his right hand was gone. It had been destroyed by the Sword Breaker. Even so, he did not care. His body was still moving. RAAAAH—! Nodens charged toward Abel. A distorted roar forced its way out of his throat.
-Do not go.
-Do not go.
-Do not go.
Brushing past Nodens’ ears, the voices of the children offered as sacrifices.
-Nodens, do you not want to live?
When I was abandoned in the middle of the sea, when I did not even know I had been abandoned, I just thought that I wanted to live. Because I wanted to live, I flailed about desperately. Maybe that is why. I do not hate how I am now. No matter what, I am alive.
So why? Why are you──, thrashing about like this just to die?
SLITHER.
A strand of tentacle wrapped around Nodens’ ankle.
Shaking it off, Nodens pressed forward. He only staggered for a moment and did not stop. The children knew it. The fact that Nodens would never win.
-It is disgusting.
Disgusting, disgusting, disgusting.
My appearance is disgusting. How did I end up like this? Why did you make me this way? Am I a monster? Or am I still a person? I do not know. I hate it. Let me out. It is revolting. It makes me sick. It is cursed. Why──, why, why, why──, did you look at someone like me as though I were lovable?
FLAP.
Countless bundles of tentacles surrounded Nodens.
He shook them all off. The children were blocking his path. Wherever the tentacles brushed against him, marks were left behind, and from them Nodens discovered a faint warmth.
-Is my mother still alive?
Sometimes I think about that. Elves live a long time.
Hundreds of years have passed, but I did not forget. I remember my mother’s face, too. No, I think I have almost forgotten it. I think I even forgot that I had forgotten. The expression she wore as she screamed to protect me somehow. That is all I remember now.
I want to say thank you, but I can no longer do so.
So thank you, Nodens.
For trying to protect us.
I was mistaken.
With eyes wide open, Nodens thought.
He had thought the endlessly spreading Black Sea was transparent. He had mistaken the grotesque-looking Banshees for fairies. The children who dwelled deep within the sea, the children who lived on while fused with monsters—he had never doubted that they were all beautiful.
‘It was a very small mistake.’
That was right.
It was nothing more than a very small mistake.
Nothing else changed because of it.
The Demon King’s own voice echoed in Nodens’ ears.
Blackness gathered around his shattered right hand. Darkness intertwined, forming the shape of a blade.
Should the children not be allowed to live.
Nodens questioned as he straightened the blade.
Should those children, fused with a massive monster and producing Banshee larvae again and again, not be allowed to live. Did the residents of Portsmouth think so. Did even the Main Gods, dwelling in lofty places, think so. Must the countless children offered as sacrifices die because they had, at some point, come to threaten someone else’s world.
Was there truly no way for them to survive.
Are those children evil?
Is that truly the law of the world?
No.
Someone had to answer no.
If those children truly threatened the world, then he would make the children his world and turn his back on everything else.
The Black Sea was his territory.
The Banshees were his kin.
The children were alive.
All of that was Nodens’ world.
If the world of the Main Gods was maintained by killing a handful of children, then he would become the Demon King’s vanguard and kill everything except that handful of children.
“If my children are the ultimate evil──!”
Nodens’ blade flashed.
Abel stood at the center of his vision.
Just as Abel, gripping his beloved sword, reached Nodens’ side,
<──The end is unnecessary.>
“──Then I will represent all evil!”
RUMBLE.
Pitch-black aura enveloped Nodens’ body.
As all conviction converged upon the blade,
“Very well.”
Abel whispered softly.
THUD. Abel’s footprint stamped down beside Nodens.
In the gap between the momentarily surging droplets, Abel pulled his beloved sword back. It was a posture meant for a thrust. Abel’s eyes fixed upon the Core beyond Nodens’ chest, and at the same time Margin-White aura gathered along the blade of his beloved sword,
“Establish your will.”
Abel Argento’s secret art, ‘Cyclical Incineration.’
The Margin-White aura coiling around the blade formed the shape of a ring.
At a glance, it looked like a single thin, narrow ring. But it was not. Countless rings were layered together as one. They interlocked and began to rotate. The moment one was pierced by it, the entire body would be ground away. Witnessing the force that tore apart the air itself, Nodens realized this—
“Come, knight of created beings!”
—but he did not hesitate.
He swung his blade toward Abel’s heart.
“It is over.”
Abel whispered quietly.
There was no time to evade Nodens’ strike.
Prepared to receive it with his body, he wielded his beloved sword. Without hesitation, he thrust the blade forward.
“……Knight of monsters.”
And so,
DRIP.
Blood ran down from Abel’s lips.
Nodens’ blade, steeped in pitch black, pierced Abel’s heart.
Abel’s blade, steeped in white, pierced Nodens’ Core.
Each of them, deeply, unmistakably, without error, was impaling the other.