Chapter 70 - Gartea - 2

People often say that size is everything in a fight.

Bera, of course, disagreed.

BOOM!

A thunderous sound erupted as the demonic sword collided with Gartea’s forepaw. Without retreating an inch, Bera bore Gartea’s weight from where he stood and summoned his divine energy.

Ash-gray divine energy was forged behind his back, shaped into long, slender spears. Seven spears formed in all. Each began spinning with a high-pitched whine.

Still holding Gartea back, Bera launched them.

Sacred art [Holy Spear].

The seven spears flew toward the hole in Gartea’s face—into its mouth.

BOOM!

The holy spears slipped cleanly inside and exploded.

“GRAAAAH!”

Blood spurted in a fountain. Spitting out a lump of flesh that appeared to be its tongue, Gartea suddenly began slamming its face against the ground with a series of deafening bangs.

An opening.

Recognizing it, Bera adjusted his grip on the sword and charged at Gartea again.

A difference in size mattered only in ordinary circumstances. It was a factor only for ordinary people whose strength had clear limits, who could wield neither mana nor other supernatural powers.

Of course, not everyone who wielded such powers could overcome that difference. But Bera could.

Bera coated the demonic sword in divine energy. He did not enlarge it. He merely compressed the energy, forging a sharper, more vicious blade to tear through Gartea’s tough hide.

Knights called it [Sword Aura].

The divine energy imitating it swept along Gartea’s right foreleg.

SCREEECH!

An unpleasant sound like scraping metal rang out, and another fountain of blood rose.

The effect, however, was negligible.

Bera clicked his tongue and rushed forward again. The part he had cut was already regenerating. Unless he pressed the assault with rapid strikes, he would never settle this fight.

With that thought, he formed another layer of sword aura. Just then—

“W-won’t forget...”

Gartea unleashed its demonic energy.

RUMBLE...

The earth heaved as demonic energy surged upward. A red aura. The Demon King’s light spread across the ground beneath Sanctuary. Seeing it, Bera leaped swiftly into the air. A moment later—

BOOM!

The demonic energy covering the ground erupted all at once.

Bera briefly held his breath and thought,

‘If I hadn’t jumped, that would have caught me.’

Everything below his ankles would have been blown apart.

A chill ran down his spine. When he raised his head again, Gartea’s left forepaw filled his vision. Bera pointed his sword forward and wove divine energy once more.

Sacred art [Wing of Protection].

A vast white wing rippled into being and wrapped around his body. Gartea’s forepaw crashed against it.

BANG!

Still airborne, Bera was hurled far back among the trees, dispersing the force of the blow as he went. After being driven back a considerable distance, he plunged the demonic sword into the ground. With a grinding scrape, his body came to a halt.

The first thing he checked was the sword’s condition.

‘It’s intact.’

Truly worthy of being called a Masterpiece. Even unfinished, its durability alone had already reached another level.

Bera tightened his grip on the demonic sword. Just as he was about to charge at Gartea again—

“Won’t forge-e-et...!”

The hole in Gartea’s face widened. Before its mouth, opened so far that its head became distorted, red light began to gather.

Bera’s eyes widened. His body reacted first, shooting swiftly to the right.

An instant later, the condensed red light struck the spot where he had stood, and space was erased.

There was no explosion. No, there was not even the faintest sound of impact.

The light merely descended and expanded, and the area it occupied began to vanish as though nothing had ever been there.

“Tsk.”

Having safely evaded the demonic energy, Bera watched it, clicked his tongue, and charged at Gartea again.

‘I can’t give it any distance.’

Once fired, that attack could not be blocked. But if he stayed close and disrupted the gathering energy, he could prevent it.

Bera’s expression twisted sharply.

‘... What a pain.’

Up close, he had to contend with those mace-like forepaws and the demonic energy spread across the ground and detonated. If he moved away to escape them, it fired demonic energy at him.

Grinding his teeth, Bera summoned divine energy again. He wove the ash-gray energy and inscribed it upon the soles of his feet.

Sacred art [Skywalk].

Bera stepped on empty air and approached Gartea. Gartea raised its forepaw.

With his first step, he soared high into the air. With his second, third, and fourth, he trod through the sky, evading Gartea’s forepaw.

The fifth.

He closed in on Gartea’s face.

As demonic energy gathered before its mouth once again, he used his sixth step to change direction in midair.

[-----.]

After evading the sphere, he took his seventh step, shooting back toward Gartea’s mouth. He drove the demonic sword into its lower gums and poured in divine energy.

This was the technique he had relied on most since leaving the Holy Empire: the knights’ ultimate technique [Thunderburst], imitated through sacred arts.

The divine energy channeled through the demonic sword seeped into Gartea’s body. A moment later, it exploded.

BOOOOM!

The explosion hurled Bera back. Raising his head, he saw Gartea with the bottom of its jaw blown away.

Was there a chance of victory?

With that thought, Bera focused on the missing jaw—only to see Gartea regenerating bone and muscle simultaneously, forming its jaw anew.

“Grrrr...”

Blood dripped from the tip of its long, protruding tongue.

Bera’s face twisted.

‘Persistent bastard...’

It went without saying, but Gilli was no comparison. Its regeneration, strength, and bursts of demonic energy all far surpassed Gilli’s.

Bera let out a small breath at seeing the attacks he had spent so much divine energy on come to nothing. Then he steeled himself.

He had enough divine energy. So long as he did not give up, Sanctuary would supply it endlessly. There was no need to worry about that.

He could see no victory, but neither could he see defeat.

Then all he had to do was win.

Bera summoned divine energy again, stimulating the vitality throughout his body. His muscles swelled. His blood flowed faster. His thoughts and five senses sharpened, as did the sixth sense beyond them.

Once again, Bera charged at Gartea.

* * *

Todd swung his arms, screaming at the pain coursing through his entire body.

All the while, the same words kept spilling from his mouth.

“W-won’t forget...”

He would not forget. He would not forget the great unification, nor those who had sacrificed themselves for the greater cause.

Repeating those words inwardly, Todd tried to think.

He could not remember what it was he had vowed not to forget. His thoughts were so twisted that he could not recall it at all, and he kept thinking, trying to remember.

But once again, nothing came.

“GRAAAAH!”

He did not know what that sound was. There was only pain, mounting exhilaration, and dizziness.

His flesh brimmed with so much power that he felt a blazing heat rising inside him.

No matter how desperately he exerted all his strength to rid himself of that heat, it rose again. Frustration welled up.

BOOOM!

An explosion rang out. Todd did not know what was causing the sound.

He did not know why he could see nothing. He could only sense an irritating energy, and as he pursued it, explosions kept erupting like this.

‘Ah...’

He was hungry.

So hungry he could not bear it.

If he could chew up even that irritating thing, his hunger might ease a little. Why could he not catch it? Even that made the heat inside him burn more fiercely.

He felt nauseated.

The heat inside him was so intense that he felt he had to vomit it out. Todd did not suppress it in the slightest. He let it out.

The heat gathered. It was expelled. It shot forth.

The heat hurtled toward Bera.

As another mass of condensed demonic energy shot toward him, Bera accelerated toward Gartea.

He twisted his body sharply, gathered divine energy at the tip of his sword, and swung.

Gartea’s left hind leg was cleanly sliced off.

That was possible only because its hind legs were pitifully frail compared with its forelegs.

Watching Gartea topple sideways with a heavy thud, Bera forged [Holy Spear] again.

His target was, once more, its mouth.

He had to aim for the flesh inside, which was markedly softer than the hide elsewhere.

The holy spears flew, but Gartea clamped its mouth shut, as though unwilling to fall for the same attack twice.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

The holy spears rained onto its face, but inflicted no damage.

Seeing that, Bera was about to forge sword aura again when—

“Won’t... forget...”

Gartea’s body glowed red. It had coated itself in the demonic energy it had previously spread across the ground and detonated.

Bera’s breath stopped.

He had already completed his charge. His sword was pointed at Gartea’s tightly closed mouth.

At that instant, with no chance to evade, an explosion erupted.

BOOOM!

* * *

White feathers drifted through the air, then faded away.

The [Wing of Protection] Bera had activated in that split second was disappearing.

“Cough...!”

Bera gave a suppressed cough and stared at the dark blood that came up with it.

‘Internal injuries.’

He had somehow protected himself on the outside, but the impact had shaken his insides.

He looked around.

The forest, once packed with trees, had become a barren clearing before he knew it.

Beneath the ash-gray Sanctuary, only Gartea and he remained whole. Just the two of them.

In the distance, Gartea rose, healing the wounds inflicted by its own explosion.

Bera grimaced at the sight and pushed himself up, using his sword for support.

His insides churned. Blood surged up with every breath. Nausea rose, followed by a headache.

Even so, Bera reminded himself.

‘Losing...’

Was not an option.

Had he not slipped out alone, come here without telling anyone, precisely so he could win?

Had he not come because this was the only thing he could do, the only thing within his power to approach the light he so desperately longed for?

Bera raised the demonic sword.

BOOM!

An explosion erupted with every step Gartea took.

Bera stepped forward again.

Sanctuary still stood.

So long as he did not lose his will to fight, so long as he did not betray the faith he aspired to, it would stand forever.

He would be able to keep fighting until the moment of victory.

His hand tightened around the demonic sword, tendons standing out across its back. Keeping that grip, Bera placed his other, empty hand on the hilt as well.

He summoned divine energy. Ash-gray light rose.

Watching Gartea suddenly stop and lower itself in preparation for a charge, Bera spoke.

“I swear.”

Beneath Sanctuary, this time he placed an oath upon himself.

“I will not fall. I will not retreat. I will not give in to fear.”

Never again would he break the oath he himself had made. That was his vow.

“By doing so, I shall be able to drive my sword into my enemy’s heart, just once.”

He would win without fail. Having resolved to do so, he had to see it through.

Gartea charged. Bera pointed the tip of his sword toward it.

He lowered his stance.

His feet planted firmly upon the earth.

Gartea opened its mouth wide.

At that moment, divine powers were inscribed upon Bera’s body.

Bera shot forward.

He passed the gaping mouth, slipped past the jaw, then beyond the throat. As Bera drove his sword into Gartea’s fully exposed chest, a brilliant golden radiance suffused the demonic sword.

SHUNK!

A soft sound rang out.

The demonic sword had pierced that chest—the chest that would not yield no matter how often he slashed it, that regenerated again in an instant and had seemed utterly beyond his reach.

Bera poured divine energy into the demonic sword.

“Cough...!”

The violent exertion sent blood surging up and spilling out once more.

“Won’t forget...!”

Bera clenched his teeth and swallowed the blood welling up. Then, with a broad grin, he detonated the divine energy he had poured inside.

“Shut up.”

He offered just those words to the idiot who had been repeating the same thing all along.

WHOOOOSH!

The divine energy that had penetrated Gartea’s body exploded, bathing the inside of Sanctuary in gold.