Chapter 97 - Invitation

Noel could not even remember the last time she had been forced onto the defensive. As far as she knew, it had never happened since she earned the title of Lionhearted.

That made her clash with Magnus a profoundly shocking experience.

Like a composer setting notes upon a staff, she weighed her rhythm against her opponent's. Neither gave an inch as they traded blows.

And the longer those exchanges continued, the more she was pushed back.

"...!"

This was absurd.

Their weapons collided in showers of sparks. The air shrieked around them like the screams of the dead.

With every clash, she swung with the entirety of the immense supernatural power that had earned her the description of a walking power plant. Yet her opponent did not yield at all. If anything, he increased his output with every exchange, as if daring her to keep up.

It felt like fighting a mountain. She could feel all too keenly that, in this kind of combat, he was an even greater monster than Katya!

"Nice! You're good!"

He even let out a hearty laugh as he did it, as though he still had strength to spare.

"I haven't met anyone who could last this long lately! Not bad!"

Echoes of death and destruction roared from the tip of his greatsword again and again.

A cut straight down the centerline. An ordinary downward slash.

But the destructive force it carried was anything but ordinary. Gleaming viciously, the greatsword plunged toward Noel.

Of course, Noel was no amateur who would fall easily to a single attack. With an economical movement, she deflected the blow and immediately turned to counterattack.

"But!"

He saw right through her.

He seized that empty beat between her turn and her lunge. Having swung his greatsword with one hand, Magnus clamped the other around her neck, stopping her movement cold.

"That's about all you've got, isn't it?"

His voice drifted calmly from beneath his visor.

"Not bad, but not particularly good, either. Bland."

"... Ghk...!"

"I wanted to meet the real deal. That husband of yours."

"... What did you just say—?"

Noel managed the question despite her gasping breaths.

What was this man babbling about?

"Anyone who catches Her Holiness's interest to that extent must have a whole bag of tricks hidden away. I'm curious myself."

"What do you intend to do when you meet Aiden—?"

"What else? Isn't it obvious?"

Magnus answered matter-of-factly.

"Fight to the death. Until one of us is finished. You could even watch."

Was this man saying he would kill Aiden right in front of her?

"..."

Her mind went blank. Rage boiled up from deep within her, racing along her spine and through the very core of her heart as though her entire body were ablaze.

"... He wants nothing of the sort. His greatest wish is to live in peace—!"

"Whether he wants it or not is none of my concern."

Magnus snorted.

"If he runs instead of accepting, I could simply crush him. If he's that much of a coward, I'd go out of my way to make sure I killed him right before your—"

For an instant, her vision flashed.

"—!"

Even Noel herself did not know how it was possible.

But the next moment, she was throwing off the arm gripping her neck and driving a kick into Magnus's abdomen.

This time, his movements betrayed his surprise. Just as Noel had never lost in sheer supernatural power, this man had surely never lost a contest of strength.

"Aaaaargh!!"

She did not even know what sound she was making. A golden light suffused the energy pouring from her body.

Then, with a bestial roar, she drove her fist into Magnus's lowered face with terrifying force.

BOOOOOOM!

An earsplitting blast rang out, more like a bomb exploding than a punch landing.

The blow was so primal that she had forgotten to use her weapon.

Yet that alone made Magnus's body shudder as though it were breaking, when all her sword strikes had failed to shake him from his mountainous stance.

Blood and flesh sprayed in every direction.

"—!"

Staggering backward, Magnus looked at Noel as she glared at him, panting.

Her bearing was unmistakably different now.

Pure-white energy enveloped her entire body, mingled with a golden light. She looked so different that she might have been another person entirely.

Her eyes were unfocused. Clearly, she had not delivered that blow in her right mind.

At the sight, Magnus chuckled and readied his greatsword.

"... Well, now. You can do it when you try, Lionhearted. Why haven't you used that until now?"

The desire to fight blazed in his eyes once more. He was about to begin a second round—

"Stop. That's enough."

—or would have, had the Pontiff not arrived at some point and stopped him.

"He accepted my proposal. There's no reason to keep fighting here, is there?"

"Oh, has he?"

The moment he heard that, Magnus visibly deflated.

Noel, too, abruptly came to her senses and looked at the Pontiff, golden energy still surrounding her.

As soon as focus returned to her eyes, that golden energy dispersed.

"... Aiden accepted your proposal?"

"Of course. We both accepted it quite happily. I'm satisfied, and so is he."

The Pontiff yawned as she spoke.

"Take good care of your husband and bring him along, Lionhearted. We leave tomorrow."

Noel's eyes wavered wildly at those words.

▣

"... Everyone."

"..."

"Is everyone all right?"

Morrigan asked the question as she cautiously looked around.

Naturally, no one gave her a proper answer.

Katya, Noel, and Aiden were each staring blankly out the window.

'... I lost.'

Noel looked down dejectedly at her chipped sword.

To be frank, her duel with Magnus had been a defeat.

She had rallied partway through, but she was not foolish enough to deny that his accumulated skills and capabilities as a warrior surpassed hers.

'But what was that?'

The strange thing was that she had managed to counterattack at all.

The golden energy that had risen around her without her realizing it was a mysterious power unlike anything she had ever experienced.

'Golden...'

It was exactly the same color as the energy Aiden had manifested when he saved the capital.

Why had it manifested in her as well?

"..."

Thinking that, she glanced at Aiden. Noticing her gaze, he met her eyes.

"Was there something you wanted to say?"

The sight of him asking so casually made her heart ache.

'... If only I'd been stronger.'

At least Aiden would not have had to accept such an outrageous demand on the spot. She could have driven the Pontiff's party away and worked out a proper response.

So much for her vow to keep him out of danger and return him safely to his family. All she could do was dwell on her helplessness.

Surely she bore some share of the blame for Aiden being forced into something he did not want to do.

'... Whatever it takes.'

Noel lowered her eyes, repeating the words to herself.

'I must protect Aiden, no matter—'

While she inwardly repeated that vow, Aiden was thinking only one thing.

'I got a pretty good deal out of this, didn't I?'

- Quest Info

◈ Act 2, < Blasphemy >

- Chapter 1, < Proving Worthiness >

▶ The succession ceremony to select a new Pontiff will begin soon. Prove that you are worthy of participating!

▶ Clear Condition: Pass the 'preliminary round'!

Act 2 had begun much sooner than he expected, but it was bound to arrive eventually.

In that respect, the current situation was actually better than anticipated.

'It's better to go in with ties to the Pontiff from the start.'

He would have to keep her from pushing him around however she pleased, but by all appearances, she was not hostile toward him. He would have to figure out her intentions over time. For now, she had promised various accommodations in return for imposing this task on him.

In the first place, his reason for going there had little to do with who became Pontiff.

As always, he was going there to save people.

"..."

While Rift in the Capital had dealt with turmoil within the Empire, Act 2, Blasphemy, was an episode filled with incidents involving gods in particular, as its title suggested.

It was also far more troublesome than Act 1.

The reason?

'At least I knew what disaster would happen in Act 1...'

As the title Rift in the Capital indicated, Act 1 was squarely about putting down an incident in the capital. In other words, what he needed to prepare for was clearly defined.

Act 2, on the other hand...

'Rooting out a traitor sowing chaos from within.'

Choosing the next Pontiff meant choosing the nation's next leader, so the process was long, complicated, and fraught with one ordeal after another.

And throughout that process in Act 2, people kept dying.

A traitor working with demons was deliberately thinning the ranks of the royal family, the Holy Kingdom's most vital fighting force.

As Meyer had warned him, the Holy Kingdom's succession rites were notorious for their exceptional cruelty. They might be far less brutal than in the past, but there were still countless mechanisms that could be 'exploited' in that fashion.

Over the course of Act 2, most of the royals would die at the hands of an internal traitor who wanted to bring down the entire Holy Kingdom.

'... This is going to be rough. Really rough.'

And as even that brief summary made clear, while the utterly straightforward events of Act 1 had already been twisted that badly, Act 2 had been an episode riddled with variables even in the original game.

Considering how much harsher Aiden's current situation was than the original, literally anything could happen.

Given those circumstances, entering the scenario with a connection to the Pontiff was a tremendous advantage.

Few connections could be more useful than the Holy Kingdom's leader when it came to preventing incidents before they occurred, gaining access to privileged information, and identifying the black-hearted villain.

Mulling that over, Aiden yawned.

'... Here we go again, then.'

As he leaned back in his chair with that thought, he caught sight of Katya sitting completely motionless across from him.

"..."

Noel had seemed rather depressed for a while now, too.

But this woman was beyond depressed. Something was...

'Is she even in her right mind?'

The closer they drew to the Holy Kingdom, the more her eyes seemed to lose focus.

"Katya."

At his voice, she turned her head with the stiffness of an unoiled robot.

"Yeah."

"Are you all right? You seem listless."

"Yeah."

"... Are you agreeing with the first part or the second?"

"Yeah."

"..."

... Perhaps he would be better off not talking to her.

- System Message

▶ Entry into Act 2 confirmed.

▶ The Personal Quest for target 'Katya Heinkel Craven' is now available.

▶ Rewards will be granted upon completion.

Once again, a window appeared that instantly captured his attention.

'A Personal Quest...'

Come to think of it, the system had said one of those would become available before. It had also been a requirement for unlocking the Unique Trait Origin.

He had forgotten about it because there had been no information updates whatsoever. Apparently, something had come up in conjunction with Katya being the central character of this episode.

- System Message

▶ Upon completion, you will receive the target's 'Remnant' as a reward!

"..."

... That, however, was something he had not expected at all.