Chapter 96 - Chaos - 4

Bera swung the Holy Sword, batting aside an incoming fireball. The idea of striking fire with a sword was absurd, but not in this situation. The fireball launched by the master of the Magic Tower was a mass of condensed mana, and he was knocking it away with divine energy.

After dispersing the flames that flared up and spread over his armor with divine energy, Bera looked skyward. A red-haired woman hovered in the air, grinning as she wove her spells. Anilis, master of the Magic Tower, was there.

He had spent some time slaughtering the corpses, then seen guards and knights emerging into the streets one by one. Only after confirming that the crown prince was safe had he sought out the tower master and ambushed her, but the attack had failed. Now their standoff dragged on.

'I can't get close.'

It was not simply because the tower master was floating in the sky. He could readily fight an aerial battle using [Skywalk], but the moment he took to the air, she would launch spells at the civilians. He was pinned to the ground.

The tower master cast another spell. A blazing scarlet inferno descended from high above. At the sight, Bera wove divine energy into a golden wing that sheltered the ground below—the sacred art [Wing of Protection].

The inferno collided with the golden wing.

KABOOOOM!

A deafening explosion rang out. Bera swayed as his body absorbed the impact. He clenched his teeth and drew out more divine energy, but despite his efforts, cracks began spreading across the wing. He did not have enough. Having already laid [Cradle] over the other streets, he lacked the divine energy to block all those fireballs.

CRACK!

The hairline fractures widened. His divine energy ran dry. Only about three incoming fireballs remained. Here and there, he could see servants from the mansions who had yet to escape the street. Bera dismissed the wing and leaped up, blocking the three fireballs with his body.

BOOM!

His body shuddered with the impact. A stifled groan escaped him, followed by a spurt of red blood.

* * *

Leaning on Rohan and Mari, Renée somehow forced her staggering body out of the gutter. She still could not bring her emotions under control. Tears streamed from her eyes, and her trembling chin and reddened face made her look pitiful.

She did not know what she had just witnessed. But those emotions had etched themselves into her heart, along with the ugly image of herself they had forced her to confront. Even as she thought that she could not go on like this, she could not calm herself. Still shaken, she finally emerged onto the street, and the sensations that reached her made her whole body jolt.

Screams, heat, and the scent of blood. Those were the first three sensations to reach her. Then came the acrid smell of something burning and tremors that shook the ground. The street was in chaos.

"What happened?"

She managed the words in a trembling voice. Rohan answered.

"There seems to have been an attack. There are pink-haired corpses lying in the street, and injured people everywhere."

Rohan's expression was grim. Things here already seemed to be settling down, but the people he could see were far too badly injured. Golden divine energy covered the ground: the area-wide regeneration art [Cradle]. Bera appeared to have left it behind, but it was not enough.

"Mari! Hurry and heal them!"

"On it!"

As soon as Mari entered the street, she released her divine energy without delay. Verdant light imbued with the divine powers of abundance enveloped the street. A far stronger, larger [Cradle] than Bera's spread over it. The wounds of the injured people in sight began closing rapidly, but Mari's face was turning ashen. She was expanding [Cradle] beyond the street before them, into the next street and the next district, and her divine energy was being drained away.

Even an apostle had limits to the area they could cover. It would take several ordinary kingdoms' capitals put together to rival the size of the imperial capital. Mari's own supply of divine energy was far too limited to envelop it all.

Watching the verdant light gradually weaken, Rohan ground his teeth and released his own divine energy. Indigo light spilled out.

"Mari, I'll make a path. Please channel your divine energy along it."

They could not spread [Cradle] by brute force like this. He needed to create guidelines that would allow each injured person to receive the appropriate level of treatment. The indigo divine energy formed a sphere, and a band wrapped around it. Rohan inscribed an art upon that band: the tracking art [Twilight].

When Rohan sent the completed Twilight into the sky, it shone, creating indigo paths in every direction. Mari grafted Cradle onto Twilight. Verdant light raced along the paths Twilight had made. Their divine energy reached a wider area, and for a moment, it seemed the situation might improve...

"Fuck."

The curse slipped from Rohan's mouth.

'Just how much of a fucking mess is this?'

The strain on his body was immense. There was only one reason: as Twilight spread, it kept creating more branches. Twilight was an art whose burden doubled with every new branch. Naturally, branching out dozens or hundreds of times in a situation like this made the strain impossible to bear. Rohan staggered.

'This won't work.'

They could not cover the entire capital this way.

Rohan let out a deep breath and spoke to Mari, his face badly contorted.

"Mari, if I collapse, make sure you look after me."

"Hm? What? You're going to do that?"

"I have to. Damn it, I'll be laid up for a while again."

Grumbling, Rohan knelt on the ground and closed his eyes. He held the indigo divine energy inside his body and began to pray. They did not have enough divine energy. Caring for the injured across the entire capital was beyond what Mari, Renée, and he could manage.

'Then I'll have to pull some in.'

Rohan rolled up his right sleeve, exposing his sacred mark. He poured every last bit of divine energy into it.

"What are you trying to do?"

Renée's voice rang out. Her face was already pale. Rohan answered her with a rigid expression.

"I'm going to draw divine energy from the divine realm."

"What?"

"That's what my divine powers do."

Rohan continued concentrating, pouring divine energy into his sacred mark once more. The divine powers of guidance allowed him to communicate with the divine realm. Naturally, they could be used in this way as well. The drawback was that the divine force of that realm was too dense for a human body to bear; using it once would leave him bedridden for days.

'... This isn't the time to worry about that.'

Rohan took a deep breath. Even as her divine energy was being consumed, Mari infused his body with verdant light to look after him. Watching this, Renée felt her stomach drop.

'I...'

Her face crumpled.

What was she doing? Why was she hesitating here, unable to help in any way? Intense self-loathing followed those thoughts.

She ground her teeth audibly. Her hand gripped the cane so tightly that it trembled. Then she poured divine energy into it and struck the ground.

TAP!

It was her third pulse that day, and her last. Fueled by far more divine energy than the previous two, it spread to its limit, delivering information into Renée's mind. The chaos-stricken capital revealed itself to her.

Tragedy was there. Someone trapped beneath a pile of rubble held a child enclosed in their arms. Someone else clutched a person lying on the ground and wailed. Soldiers ran, shouting. Somewhere far away, someone raised a dagger to protect the people huddled behind them.

Countless tragedies were weaving themselves into a single despair.

... And there were people standing firm amid it all.

The spreading pulse reached its farthest edge.

'... Bera.'

Bera was there. He kept running through the crowds, as though fending something off. He swung his sword, protecting their escape route.

What was she doing while all this was happening? The thought caught her breath in her throat.

She was the only one running away now. One pathetic fool who had never known how to do anything but whine. Everyone else was rising from their tragedy, yet she alone remained slumped on the ground.

'This...'

Was not right.

Renée struck her shaking leg with her fist, then planted her cane with a sharp tap and stepped forward before speaking.

"Rohan."

"Y-yes?"

"Wait a moment."

She could not remain slumped on the ground.

"Let me try."

With those words, Renée planted her cane again and took another step forward. She summoned pure white divine energy. Her face was still a tearstained mess. Her insides burned. No matter how hard she tried to stop trembling, she could not.

No matter how much she thought about it, she could not understand... what Orgus had shown her. But there was something she could feel.

There had undoubtedly been despair in Bera's words about loss, in his screams. The screams rising from this chaos held that same despair.

Yet those people—and Bera—had risen. They had not given up. They were facing their despair, pursuing their own light within it. It was not that they had avoided tragedy and therefore had no need to rise. They rose because, despite it, they had not given up.

Renée berated herself. She berated the foolish little girl who thought herself the most unfortunate person in the world. Her brow drew into a fierce scowl, and anger surfaced on her reddened face.

The past flashed through her mind. She had said she did not understand faith. She had said she resented the gods.

'Because hating them was easier.'

She had said she did not know what to do.

'Because I never tried to find out.'

She had said she must help because it was simply her duty.

'Because I was intoxicated with that image of myself.'

TAP.

Her cane touched down another step ahead. She still could not see. Her world remained in darkness. But that was no reason to give up, no reason to hide. She had merely refused to face it; she already possessed the strength to make her way through that darkness.

The pure white divine energy grew more radiant, wrapping around Renée's body. Her thoughts began to expand.

'Why?'

The question came to her. Once again, she faced the question she had turned away from at some point.

Why had these divine powers come to her? Why had her light disappeared? What did the gods want from her?

Renée did not know the answer. But she knew how to arrive at one. Bargo had told her.

'... I decide for myself.'

She had to choose her own path and the goal she would achieve. Only she could decide what to accomplish with these divine powers.

Renée already knew what she desperately wanted.

'Bera.'

The love that had become her guiding lamp was already etched within her. Her ideal and her goal were there.

Renée twisted the handle of her cane. A click was followed by the cold hiss of a blade sliding free.

Bera had said he pursued the light. He had told her that she was that light. Renée wanted to become a light for Bera, who followed her. There was no grand ideal or goal beneath that desire. There was only love, and her wish to hold it in her grasp.

Renée gripped the sword with both hands and raised it. The light surrounding her body settled into the blade. Upon its snow-white Proden surface, an even whiter light was inscribed.

She etched her resolve into it and looked toward the ideal she would pursue. Then, naturally, she knew what she had to do. Just as on the day she first received her sacred mark, she could do it as naturally as though she had known how from the beginning.

Renée clenched her teeth and brought the sword down. It was a stroke through empty air, but that did not matter. The thought of cutting—that alone was enough.

Love was her goal, the driving force that would let her rise above the tragedy weighing upon her. Renée cut through her hesitation. She cut through her pathetic self. She cut through her own tragedy.

... And so, she cut through the sky.

ROOOOAR!

A white point moved across the blue sky, becoming an unbroken line. The line rippled, expanding into a plane. A pure white sky appeared.

Then a pure white miracle descended.