Chapter 233: Arpentia (11)
Light.
It was a truly radiant and intense light.
I wondered if this was what it would feel like to face the sun directly before one’s eyes.
“…….”
It was a sight so astonishing that it was almost solemn.
Valen Zeisho, the very one who had created that spectacle, merely gazed blankly at the light he had fired.
“It is taxing.”
He simply muttered that one quiet remark.
It was a single sentence laden with many meanings.
He was once again painfully realizing just how much weaker he had truly become.
The light gradually began to fade.
The Three-Eyed Tribe’s giant—an enormous creature capable of single-handedly toppling a castle, which had charged at him as though it would crush him at any moment—had already been swallowed by the light and evaporated without leaving even a trace.
The surrounding scenery slowly began to regain its original colors.
The beam of light had burst forth as though it would devour everything, yet what it had actually consumed was only the giant of the Three-Eyed Tribe.
Astonishingly, not only the surrounding debris but even the ground remained completely intact, unchanged in the slightest.
It was a technique that could be called his ultimate art—one that selected only what he intended to attack and swallowed that alone.
“…….”
Valen Zeisho slowly lowered his bow.
Not a single being had ever survived with their body intact after being swallowed by that light.
Had not even one of the Eight Demon Lords he once faced managed to escape with his life only after sacrificing half his body?
‘Where are you.’
And yet, contrary to the words he had spoken earlier, Valen Zeisho was convinced that Arpentia had blocked this attack.
Not merely blocked it, but blocked it perfectly.
Because she had always done so.
She had always surpassed the expectations of himself and the other members of the Wolpen Knights and astonished them all.
Thus, if it was her, he believed she would surely have prepared some way to block or dismantle even his ultimate art.
“Ugh….”
Arpentia’s voice came from the other side.
It was a faint groan, but not the voice of someone gravely injured.
Just as he had expected.
Before long, the light that had seemed capable of devouring everything completely faded, and Arpentia’s figure was slowly revealed.
As he had anticipated, she was unharmed.
“What.”
Valen Zeisho muttered, a rare hint of bewilderment in his voice.
Arpentia being unharmed was indeed as he had expected.
Yet at the same time, the scene unfolding before him lay far beyond his expectations.
“……Talia.”
Standing before him was Talia Poas.
No—she was, and yet she was not.
It was a fi—
“…….”
Valen Zeisho gave a small shake of his head.
If it were anyone else, perhaps. But he did not wish to utter such words about his own comrade.
“……Arpentia, so this is what you meant.”
Valen Zeisho murmured, sounding both hollow and astonished.
What stood before his eyes.
No—was it truly right to call it a ‘thing’?
In any case, Talia Poas stood there before him.
There was no other way to describe it.
She looked as though she might begin breathing at any moment.
Retaining the youth and beauty of her prime, she stood like a statue, motionless, gazing at him.
“…….”
And yet….
Or perhaps, inevitably, Valen Zeisho could not sense even the slightest trace of life from her.
She appeared utterly hollow, like a meticulously crafted doll.
Even so, he felt his eyes sting without realizing it.
“It is exactly as you were in my memories.”
Valen Zeisho muttered as though exhaling a storm of tangled emotions.
And he had no choice but to coldly judge that the tide of battle had reversed.
The scales that had been tilted toward him had now tipped toward Arpentia.
“…….”
Arpentia.
No matter what method she employed, he had believed that alone, she could never defeat him.
That was not arrogance or conceit.
It was simply an utterly objective fact.
No matter how sick and aged an elephant might be, it would never lose to a single ant.
…No, in truth, even if she had fought anyone among the Wolpen Knights, the result would surely have been the same.
From the very beginning, the reason she had belonged to the order had not been her martial strength.
It had been her exceptional wisdom, her vast knowledge, and her unparalleled magical talent.
Even in terms of pure physical prowess alone, Anastasia Mayblin—the Saintess who had been protected by everyone at the rear—had been a step above her.
He had thought that even if a little additional strength were added, nothing would change.
Among the ‘little additional strength’ Valen Zeisho had envisioned were the aged Dragon who had lost its child, the Man without a Head (Male), and the Dead with Iron Needles Embedded in Their Chests.
‘But….’
But Talia Poas.
If she were here, the story changed entirely.
If he and she were to fight, who would win?
He honestly did not know.
Perhaps the result would be that they would become each other’s final companions on the road to death.
But even that assumed he was in his prime, in perfect condition.
If his current, thoroughly deteriorated self were to face Talia, who appeared close to her prime, then without even needing to see more, the one who would fall would be himself.
‘But….’
Naturally, she would not be in a perfect state.
Valen Zeisho thought quietly.
If she were, Arpentia would have revealed her long ago.
No—everything would have ended before it had even begun.
The power possessed by the woman named Talia Poas was to that extent.
‘Then.’
The decisive factor would be just how complete the Wolpen Knights that Arpentia had constructed were—and how many more she could summon.
But at the very least, it was certain that they were capable of producing enough force to block his ultimate art unharmed.
‘What should I do now.’
Valen Zeisho steadied his breathing and, without letting his opponent notice, subtly drew his arm behind his back.
The technique he had just unleashed had placed considerable strain upon his body.
‘……Hm?’
Then suddenly, his eyes met Talia.
No, the one bearing Talia’s appearance.
“……?”
Surely it was nothing more than a doll, incapable of possessing any human heart or emotion whatsoever.
And yet, Valen Zeisho instinctively felt that something was strange.
“…….”
In that instant, Talia’s gaze fixed precisely upon him.
No—more accurately, it was directed toward his shoulder… toward the very spot where the Brand should have been engraved.
The Brand.
He had long since handed it over to someone else.
And the Talia standing opposite him appeared to have immediately noticed that fact.
“…….”
Her eyes curved ever so slightly, softening as though in relief.
Then she moved her lips as if telling him to be quiet.
Shh.
Immediately afterward, Talia’s eyes lost their light, as if nothing had happened.
Like the Dead with Iron Needles Embedded in Their Chests, she returned to the same manner of being—merely imitating a living human.
She simply stood there in silence, waiting quietly for her master’s command.
‘Talia.’
Valen Zeisho whispered her name inwardly.
‘Could it be that you….’
Had she anticipated that such a situation would come?
And so….
After finishing his thoughts, Valen Zeisho gave a quiet nod.
At the realization that he was not alone, he felt strength return to the hand gripping his bow.
‘Yes.’
Then he would simply do what he could.
There was only one thing he had to do now.
“So it truly was to the extent that you could speak with such confidence.”
A brief silence passed.
At last, at Valen Zeisho’s words, Arpentia responded in a tone that somehow sounded like an excuse.
“……It is not yet complete. Compared to the real Lady Talia, it does not even reach her toes.”
As she said that, Arpentia carefully stepped out from behind Talia’s back.
Her face was deeply distorted, but it was not from pain.
It was from guilt and reverence—for daring to use Talia Poas as a shield.
Along with that was no small measure of shame and embarrassment for having revealed her incomplete form to the world… and before Valen Zeisho, no less.
“I see. Even so, it is certainly remarkable.”
Arpentia murmured quietly.
It was not flattery.
He was sincerely impressed.
“It is exactly as I remembered. Talia, yes. Talia… she certainly looked like that.”
As he spoke, he realized something.
That was Talia’s appearance from when she had belonged to the Wolpen Knights.
He muttered softly.
“You could not remember my face, which had not changed at all, yet you remember so clearly how we were back then.”
“……Because that time was everything to me.”
Arpentia whispered quietly.
“My golden age, our legends and songs. And… the sweet dream I will never forget.”
“Childhood inevitably comes to an end someday.”
Valen Zeisho replied in a whisper as well.
“After three hundred years, is it not time to awaken from the dream?”
“…….”
Arpentia said nothing.
She merely raised her wrist high.
Then, with the dagger already in her hand, she slashed her own wrist without hesitation.
Crimson droplets flowed down her slender arm and soon began falling to the ground with soft, dull taps.
Bubble, bubble.
From the ground where her blood seeped in, foam gradually began to form.
The bubbles steadily grew in size, and in an instant became large enough to swallow a person whole.
Within that mass of foam, someone’s figure was faintly visible.
‘I have lost.’
Valen Zeisho muttered quietly to himself.
Why had he not stopped her action just now?
As he asked himself that question, he immediately realized the answer.
‘I see.’
Talia Poas.
It seemed he had unconsciously wished to see the faces of his other comrades as well.
“……I dare to ask.”
Meanwhile, clutching her wounded wrist carefully, Arpentia spoke in a respectful voice.
“Please help us.”
Before Valen Zeisho’s eyes—
On either side of Talia stood two men he could never forget.
Siren Everglenn.
Rikerka Valentin.
Comrades who had crossed three hundred years, appearing exactly as they had been in those days. At that sight, Valen Zeisho let out a deep sigh without realizing it.
“Was this how those Eight Demon Lords felt.”
He adjusted his grip on his bow as he made a joke that not a single one of them smiled at.
It was time for him to do what he had to do.
Soon, the Founders of the Three Families charged toward the Fairy King.