novelraw Chapter 16 : Chapter 16
Chapter 16 : Chapter 16
༺ 𓆩 Chapter 16 𓆪 ༻
「Translator — Creator」
᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘ ᠂ ⚘ ᠃
'This is the worst.'
Ain Krieg allowed himself a bitter smile as the wind brushed past his cheek, the writhing tentacles reaching for him from beyond.
The situation was worse than he had thought.
The vaunted walls, that were untouched for the past two hundred years, now bore the weight of monsters clambering over their parapets. Of the defenders who had survived, barely half remained. Perhaps a little more than a company’s worth.
In truth, that was an achievement in itself.
A brigade reduced to little more than a battalion; supplies that were shattered beyond repair and discipline and morale that was in ruins.
And yet they had held for thirty full minutes despite those dire conditions.
Credit where it was due—
The Cerberus Brigade, for all its disarray, had fulfilled its mission to the utmost of its ability.
Then there was only one thing left.
To ensure their deaths weren't in vain.
"Lieutenant Colonel!”
The voice of Arditi Günther, who had arrived a step behind, cut through the clash.
Ain knew what awaited him.
From above, a forest of tentacles belonging to the Reaper of Ash lashed toward him, each one a deadly limb that could pierce a lung, tear out a heart, and claim the flesh of its prey.
“Haahh…”
He exhaled softly.
It would be a lie to say there was no tension or fear.
He didn't harbor childish thoughts about being some protagonist of a grand epic or hero of the century.
Humans die.
Whether elite or commoner, genius or half-wit.
It is not merely a matter of one’s allotted span.
A bullet through the head will kill anyone.
A man who bleeds too much will die.
Cut off the breath, and death will follow.
He had lived his life on battlefields littered with proof of that truth…entrails splattered into the mud, limbs flying, the sane driven mad and the mad driven further still.
Two centuries ago, and again now, after two centuries, he still stood in that same theatre of madness.
‘And what does that tell you?’
It told him that the maddest man here… was himself.
Yes, he was the lunatic of this field.
And because of that, he felt neither reckless bravado nor needless anxiety.
The question was never Can I do it?
The question was—
'Is that bastard a pain in the ass or not?'
In that regard, the creature before him passed with flying colors.
No matter how long he looked, it remained utterly, gloriously hateful.
Skerkk—!!!
His greatsword, twice the width of a common blade, carved through the lunging tentacles in a brutal arc.
Kagagagagang—!!!
And if he could not cut them, he would let them slide past.
Tap—!!!
Boots found purchase atop the wall. Sidestepping the creature’s leg as it came down like a wedge, he seized the unconscious Rier Yung and hurled him toward Arditi Günther, who had just joined forces with Captain Menharn.
Thud—!!!
Günther caught the heavy body with effort, passed the burden to the bewildered Captain Menharn, and turned back toward Ain Krieg, who was once again striding toward the Reaper of Ash.
“Where are you going?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“Are you out of your mind?”
Arditi Günther could not understand.
Ahead lay nothing but death.
They had come here only to recover whatever survivors might remain, however few, and not to pen some hollow legend like knights of two centuries past.
But Ain Krieg gave no answer. He merely dragged the greatsword along the ground and murmured in a low voice.
“Five minutes.”
Barely more than a whisper.
"Right now, it should be fine to pour everything out."
Yet to her ears, the words were clear.
‘What are you talking about…?’
She meant to ask; but she could not.
And she was not alone in her silence.
“…Brigadier Commander.”
“Ain Krieg.”
Whether they had fought to the bitter end, hidden in shame, or fled in cowardice…
No matter how they had survived, all eyes turned toward him, standing alone atop the wall. And they felt it instinctively; the languid, frail, and seemingly irresponsible air that had always clung to him… had vanished in an instant.
‘Two hundred years.’
It had not taken him long to see how much had changed.
The Millennium Empire had fallen.
Almost every nonhuman race had been driven to extinction.
Even humanity, which survived, now clung miserably to the far edges of the continent, concerned only with building their walls higher and stronger.
But what had shocked him most… was the state of those who still dared to call themselves knights.
“Petrification is the least of the problems.”
Sweeping back his sweat-soaked black hair, he spoke in a tone that was half disdain, half bitter resignation.
“They are neither knights nor mages.”
They were little more than soldiers of a Military State, they were pale shadows, fragments of a greater past, barely sustaining themselves; there was no chivalry and no mage’s hunger for knowledge.
Confined to the machinery of the army, dabbling in politics instead of pursuit of mastery, how pitiful had it been to watch?
Once, he had despised them.
A knight officer hailed as a rising star of the military barely matched the standard of a provincial knight from two hundred years ago.
A mage officer, they called them, yet their lives were cut short, destined to die as monsters before reaching even half a lifetime.
“It is not their fault.”
But at some point, Ain Krieg realized how arrogant, how hasty, and how ungrateful he had been.
“Because it was we who failed to hold the line.”
The knights of two hundred years ago had not died, and so, two centuries later, they were left to gnaw on defeat.
What had the fall of the Millennium Empire left for the generations to come? Humiliation. Defeat. A fear learned and ingrained. A limit fixed from the moment of birth.
“I will show you.”
For in the end, he was still a knight, and so, even in a body flawed and weakened, he stood with sword in hand and faced the enemy without flinching.
To all who looked upon him, he made his declaration—
This was what you had forgotten, what you had lost, what you had turned their faces from…
“A true knight.”
Ain Krieg fixed his gaze on the two Dual Numbers looming above him, both the Number 98, both the Reaper of Ash, watching him in silence.
Tok, tuduk—!!!
The Reaper of Ash’s ashen eyes glared down at him, their light seething through the human skin it wore like a peeled hide, chewing upon the rancid flesh as though savoring it.
Ain Krieg smiled faintly.
And in the next instant, his boots struck the thick stone of the battlement, and then he leapt.
―Kieeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
―Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Two roars split the air, shrill enough to tear the ears, and from opposite angles the tentacles came, tangled in a frenzy, intent on rending him apart.
“…Kh!”
That was when Arditi Günther snapped back to her senses.
She could not understand what he had muttered before.
But that did not matter now, the meaning of those words was irrelevant; the battle had begun, and half from instinct she lifted her heavy lance and followed in his wake.
Then, the tip of Ain Krieg’s greatsword flashed.
Its arc swept toward the left.
'I'll cover the right!'
Her eyes lit for an instant, and she clenched her jaw, gripping the shaft of her weapon until it nearly shattered under her grasp.
She drew upon her mana.
But the mana was tangled with the tainted aura of ash, a contamination that bestowed upon Specialist Officers the incurable petrification disease; that was why Knight Officers spent their lives striving for the maximum result with the minimum of movement and mana.
It was the only way to ensure the little time they had left as human.
But not this time.
Kwaaaadudududududuk—!!!
Her lance struck like lightning, ripping apart the tentacles that had been reaching for Ain Krieg’s right flank. And a heartbeat later, Ain Krieg’s blade severed every tendril on the left before he surged forward, slipping straight into the embrace of the Reaper of Ash waiting on that side.
“…Danger!”
The cry tore from Arditi Günther’s throat before she could think.
To anyone watching, his charge looked like suicide.
And indeed—
―Kigigigigigigigi!
The Reaper of Ash, seeing a man throw himself willingly into its grasp, gave a laugh like mockery.
Chwaaaaaak—!!!
From the human skin stretched over its torso, from the belly, a tentacle like a spear shot forth, and its point aimed squarely for Ain Krieg’s heart. It was clear to all that his heart would be pierced in the next instant.
Arditi Günther gritted her teeth, reaching out to save him.
‘I have to stop it…!’
But then—
The wind passed between them, brushing aside the black hair that had hung over Ain Krieg’s eyes.
‘…Is he smiling?’
She saw it.
At that moment when his life hung by a thread, Ain Krieg wore a smile more filled with certainty than ever before.
And in the next breath, she saw it happen.
「Krieg-ryu (Style), Ain-shiki (Form)」
「Howling」
Stillness descended, and for a heartbeat, all movement ceased; then, as Ain Krieg exhaled a short breath, his greatsword became a storm and a howl, sweeping across the field.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—!!!
The greatsword howled.
The greatsword in his grasp finally bared its full set of fangs toward the enemy.
“Hahahahahahaha!”
Ain Krieg laughed like a madman, swinging his greatsword toward the wretched, revolting, pathetic monsters that stared at him with trembling eyes.
―Kii, kigiiiiiiiiii!
―Kieeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
The Dual Numbers, feeling an instinctive dread, frantically swung their arms, but he was already gone from that spot.
He'd compressed five minutes of mana into just ten seconds.
Feed the starving wraith of two hundred years ago, and it devoured greedily, summoning forth the knight he had once been. In that moment, Ain Krieg surged forward, casting aside the hollow title of Grade 3 Knight Officer, reveling once more in the days when he had butchered countless monsters simply as a knight.
Slash—!!! Thunk—!!!
In 0.3 seconds, the left arm of one foe was severed.
In 0.2, its shin was cut away.
In 0.5, its waist and legs were parted.
In 0.4, its wretched head was lopped off.
The strain tearing through his body screamed for him to stop, but Ain Krieg only quickened his pace.
'From the side, diagonal from the left.'
'Too fast? No. Raise the tempo.'
'I'll give up the shoulder. In exchange, steal its vision.'
Whether from fear or instinct, the creatures attacked wildly.
Some of those blows struck him.
But he did not stop.
“…What in the world…”
Arditi Günther could only stare, stunned.
His afterimages tangled with heat shimmer.
Though she didn't know it, that wasn't heat shimmer but the screams of his flesh.
It was steam bursting from sweat flowing, cooling, flowing again, cooling.
And at last—
When Ain Krieg planted both feet on the ground—
Thud—!!!
He let the greatsword fall from his hands, wiping the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand before glancing at her and speaking slowly.
“I’ll leave the rest to you, Major Günther.”
Thud—!!!
His body collapsed.
And at the same moment—
Kugugugugugung—!!!
The Dual Numbers, Number 98, Reapers of Ash, tumbled from the wall in a tangle of ash and flesh,
like watermelons crudely cleaved apart,
like livestock butchered for slaughter.
So ended the beasts that had once devoured an entire battalion and dozens of Specialist Officers on their own.
“…Crazy…”
Captain Menharn, watching the scene unfold, could only mutter blankly—
“…He… took down a Dual Number?”
On the silent battlement,
with every other monster in range shredded to pieces by his Howling,
only that single line remained to ground them in reality.
“A Grade 3 Knight Officer… alone?”
END σϝ CHAPTER