Chapter 90 - Vow (2)

He could barely keep his eyes open.

The wind screamed in his ears as though it were being torn apart. Terrible gravity crushed his entire body, making it difficult even to hold himself steady.

That was only natural when he was clinging to the end of a rocket hurtling high into the sky. Even pouring every ounce of his supernatural power into it, he could barely keep from slipping off and plummeting to the ground!

["Ahahahaha! You really are insane!"]

How bad did it have to be for even Teresa, clinging beside him, to deliver such a scathing assessment?

["So! I get that you've always dreamed of flying! But what exactly are you planning to do now?"]

"... We have to keep that from spreading."

Aiden answered as he glared at the demon-god fragment still pulsing inside the rocket. He did not know what mechanism they had installed, but the higher they rose, the more its substance softened.

He suspected that, left alone, it would turn entirely gaseous and disperse in every direction.

Then the capital would become a new void region—a land where nothing without demonic energy could survive.

["Yes, but how?"]

"... The problem is, I don't know either!"

The Remnant skill said only that it manifested the target's essence. There was nothing anywhere about how to use it or what it did.

["Then let's talk it over! What do you think would work best?"]

Was this what made her the Lord Protector? True to her thoroughly eccentric nature, she asked the question without letting his answer dampen her spirits in the slightest.

It felt as though the anxiety creeping into his mind had been blown away in one stroke. Aiden chuckled as he replied.

"What would you say your essence is? I think we just need to figure that out!"

It might sound like a question out of nowhere, but it was unquestionably the best one he could ask under the circumstances.

Anyone else might have been flustered by this string of strange questions, yet Teresa clearly remained as unruffled as ever.

Her immediate answer proved as much.

["Steel, blade, scales!"]

"... Pardon?"

["It's the motto of the Empire's knights. You heard it before, remember?"]

... Come to think of it, he did remember.

I am steel.

I am the blade.

I am the scales.

Wasn't that what the Lord Protector always recited before battle?

"... That actually meant something?"

He had thought it was just a chant.

Teresa cackled in reply.

["Of course it did, you idiot!"]

I am steel.

["Like steel, I stand firmer than anyone."]

I am the blade.

["As a blade, I repel invaders."]

I am the scales.

["As the scales, I always protect the weak and uphold justice."]

In short:

["The Empire's guardian. A sentinel who protects those within from enemies without. That's what the Empire's knights are—and that's my essence!"]

"..."

At that unhesitating stream of answers, Aiden closed his eyes and sank into thought.

Protect. Essence. A sentinel protecting those within from enemies without.

An image naturally took shape.

He had not conjured it himself. As he listened to her explanation, a thought simply seemed to flow into his mind and settle there.

'A bulwark.'

Enclosing people securely, protecting them so that no enemy would dare threaten them.

That was this woman's essence.

In that case...

"... Dame Teresa."

["Yes?"]

"That's a fragment of a god. A piece of a god in the heavens."

In truth, it was so degraded that calling it a piece was a stretch; little more than a lingering echo remained.

Whatever the case, it was still part of a god.

And against something like that...

"The two of us have to put up a barrier and stop it."

One human, one ghost.

They might both be rather exceptional by human standards, but that was still a fragment of a god.

It existed on a different plane. It was not something humans could handle. It was like an insect resisting a human.

Absurd. Suicidal. Those descriptions came naturally to mind, but...

["Let's try it."]

Once again, Dame Teresa spoke with a bright smile.

They did not know whether it would work. The odds were probably against them. Their chances were slim. Hopeless.

["We can do it! I know we can!"]

Even so, they set the question of odds far aside. There was no point weighing them.

["Come on, Aiden!"]

What had to be done lay right before him.

His father, his little sister, Noel, and Katya were all down there.

Was he going to give up, then?

["Let's save those people!"]

Just because what they faced was some "divine whatever"?

'We'll just do it, damn it.'

Aiden chuckled and closed his eyes.

Supernatural power flowed through his body.

Pure-white energy. Excluding every other power, he filled himself with the energy Teresa had developed and Noel had perfected.

He gave substance to the image in his mind. He had never done this before, yet it came naturally.

He gave Teresa's essence material form.

-System Message

▶ Using 'Remnant: Lord Protector – Resolve'.

▶ The target's essence manifests. The laws of existence are remade.

▶ You protect the Empire from invaders.

▶ The Goddess of War blesses you through her subject.

And the world turned gold.

▣

Noel Astria Seamus's mind was wandering somewhere in hell.

She had never been there herself, but she would wager her entire fortune that it felt something like this...

'... Aiden...!'

Had she ever felt so helpless?

There was no way to help the man before her eyes. Pale-faced, her hands trembling, she stared into the sky.

She could see what lay ahead. Either way, Aiden's chances of survival were slim. He would fall to his death from up there, or...

He would be engulfed and killed by that unidentified thing inside the rocket—a death that would make even the former seem peaceful.

When the loathsome thing inside finally began spewing energy as though exploding, Noel nearly squeezed her eyes shut.

As the rocket reached its highest point, the black mass within burst out, shattering the entire rocket.

It was beyond mere demonic energy. It was death energy.

There was no other way to describe what dispersed into the atmosphere. A black haze blanketed the heavens, letting out an ear-splitting shriek and radiating blind hatred, as though every evil spirit and demon in the world had gathered into one.

Then that energy found its targets.

The life forces on the ground. Hateful things. Tear them all apart, devour them, erase them.

Driven by that purpose, death energy poured from the sky toward the ground. Calamity descended from the heavens.

And what rose to meet it was supernatural power flowing from someone's body.

Aiden Kellermain. The energy he had woven.

She knew the power itself.

Energy. The grace of Karva, Goddess of War.

But its color...

'Gold?'

She had never seen that color in her life.

It was common knowledge that the color of one's energy measured its wielder's ability, and that at the pinnacle, it became white—the purest color of all.

Reducing its varying colors meant reducing the impurities mixed into it. Naturally, taking that process to its limit produced pure white.

But that golden radiance...

"—"

Noel's lips parted slightly.

Yet no sound emerged.

She had forgotten even to breathe.

Such was the majesty of the sight unfolding before her.

Beyond that pure white, beyond even its limits.

Beyond mere purity and clarity.

Holy. Sublime.

As though the Goddess of War herself had manifested.

Blood seeped from Aiden's mouth. This golden energy was not something a human body was meant to wield. The power that left even the greatest knight of the age staring in a daze was placing that much pressure on every part of him.

His flesh broke down. Crumpled. His organs felt mushy, his muscles as though they were all tearing apart.

And yet, even so, he opened his mouth.

He gave voice to the essence manifested within him, to the will that essence sustained.

"I am steel."

Hear me, you who are innocent.

"I am the blade."

Hear me, you who are powerless.

"I am the scales."

Let there be protection here.

"Subjects of the Empire, fear not."

Let there be peace here.

"For I am here!!"

The Lord Protector shielded the Empire.

["Invaders, withdraw!"]

With pressure great enough to shake the pillars of heaven, boil the seas, and split the earth's axis, the supernatural power bearing a knight's will to protect her country even beyond death hurled the evil that dared invade the Empire far into the heavens.

▣

Watching the demon god's energy vanish and disperse far across the sky, Aiden coughed up a clot of blood.

Even as he plummeted toward the ground, he could not muster any strength. His vision blurred.

Yet even through his fading awareness, one thought remained clear.

'... That was fucking awesome, wasn't it?'

Honestly, even Aiden himself did not know what he had wielded, how he had wielded it, or exactly what had happened.

But he had just faced a demon-god fragment—and beaten it.

Another thought immediately sprang to mind.

'I think I deserve to brag to Dad about this.'

Father, who had so earnestly warned his son not to swim in waters too deep for him: your boy just protected the Empire.

See? That was why you ought to praise your kids properly from an early age. Nobody knew what they might grow up to be...

'... Ah, damn.'

He was gradually finding it too difficult to hold on to consciousness even to continue those idle thoughts.

'Someone, anyone, please catch me before I fall to my death—'

After getting through all that bullshit and saving the capital, wouldn't it be terribly unfair if the laws of physics ended him with a fatal fall?

As Aiden thought that, someone suddenly entered his field of vision.

"...?"

Actually, calling it "someone" was not quite right.

The shape was unquestionably human, but the being was too strange to describe as a person.

For one thing, people could not be larger than most buildings.

Even Aiden's entire body would clearly be smaller than that thing's face.

What was this? Was he hallucinating as he lost consciousness?

A woman so enormous she filled his entire field of vision floated in the sky, looking down at him as he fell.

And her appearance was unmistakably...

'Dame Noel?'

He did not know why that thought occurred to him.

But the immense woman's form filling his vision unquestionably resembled Noel.

The giant Noel lowered her gaze to Aiden.

How could he describe the emotions in her eyes?

Tenderness, regret, joy, pity.

And memories.

Any of those descriptions seemed fitting.

It felt like the gaze one turned on a former lover after parting.

"You have worked hard this time."

As everything around him moved slowly, Aiden could clearly see the woman opening her mouth to speak.

"Take care on your way home, beloved of all."

Those words...

"I shall look forward to the day we meet again."

...echoed softly in his ears as he fell.

Then:

-System Message

▶ Affection with Karva, 'Goddess of War', has increased.

▶ Bond level has increased!

▶ You may copy 1 skill!

▶ The first god to take an interest in you has appeared.

▶ Information on the Unique Trait 'Spirit Invocation' has been unlocked.

That window, barely glimpsed through his closing eyes, was the last thing Aiden saw before his consciousness faded.