“Elize.”
Glory roused the mind of the comrade he had just met.
“Elize. You have to pull yourself together.”
But Elize didn’t budge. She only stood there blankly, staring at Goaten.
Glory, who had no parents, did not know that feeling, but in the distance Goaten began to walk forward. It was plainly a stride to harm Elize. He had to stop him.
“Elize. The moment you come to, draw your sword.”
With that, Glory closed his eyes, demon blade in hand.
He faced the formless monster writhing inside the blade. A monster he, as a Hero, never wished to draw near. Yet the source of the strongest power ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) he could contain.
“ Drive it into Hell, monstrosity. ”
At his words, demonic energy burst out from the blade.
It kicked up dust from the ground.
It rustled the hem of Hero Glory’s clothes.
It blew all of Elize’s hair wild.
At the same time, Goaten laughed.
“Weak. For now.”
Wherever the mana reached, grass withered and died. Moisture fled the trees. Such are demonry and curses—powers that rob life.
And yet, against a Constellation with a grotesque will toward life and ascent, it had little effect.
“At that level, not a chance. You’re going to need my help.”
Goaten raised his hand to the sky.
“ Grind the crow and drink it, squid of the abyss. ”
At once, the household armament floating in the air spun up, and KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA...!! an invisible force began to seize the whole area.
There was no sound, no shape to see. Only the rough pounding sensation inside the mana.
— Have you ever fought invisible tendrils, each lined with thousands of blades along its suckers?
Glory recalled what Professor Dante had said not long ago.
— You haven’t?
— Then go learn.
At the time it sounded like nonsense.
— Or you die.
Now he thought he understood.
Ssweeeak—!
A tendril came flying and scourged the entirety of where Glory had been standing. Trees, earth, space—smashed apart.
He thought he’d dodged completely, but he hadn’t properly gauged the length of the blade-studded feelers. Glory’s cheek split open.
“......!”
Another tendril came. He could neither see nor hear it, but he read it by the butterfly-wing difference of mana pressure brushing his peach fuzz.
Glory swung the demon blade into empty air.
KU-UNG!!
A pitch-black sword-gale batted the tendril away. But in the exchange, Glory’s forearm tore like it had been raked along asphalt.
“Young man. Don’t guard pointlessly. You’re not my mark.”
“I’m guarding humanity of this land.”
“I told you—I can guard that too.”
With the words, Goaten rushed in. A squid has ten legs. They came at Glory from every direction. Glory fired sword-gales in a barrage, batting the tendrils aside.
Bang! Bang! BANG!!!
The squid’s legs were thicker than utility poles, each strike like being rammed by a car.
Snap, crunch, those were sounds from inside Glory’s body. Joints and ligaments protesting under the force needed to sustain the sword-gales.
“Curious, isn’t it? An assassin of the stealth line putting out output like this before a warrior like you. I’ve honed my strength long ago for the war with the Lord of Eternal Return.”
He was proving it. In other words, this wasn’t even his main output, and it had this power.
Damn it... This is beyond anything I imagined...
Glory ground his teeth. Even with his engine spun up, he couldn’t fully answer the assault.
The opponent’s very ‘tier’ was different.
It was the same sensation he’d had when he’d once clashed with Radiant Constellation⁺₊⋆ Agion.
As if facing a small god that had come down into the human world—he himself felt small.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!!!
What’s more, Goaten wasn’t just ramming with strength and numbers; with each strike he was seeking the weak points of the sword-gales.
Glory realized the man was very deftly pinning down one at a time to burn out the gales.
So he couldn’t bounce many at once. One by one. From different angles. Luring him to expend force every time.
But I also prepared in advance.
Glory, too, began to disperse his strength and bat the tendrils aside with the minimum sword-gale. By now he was slowly beginning to size the length of those blades.
At the same time—
Of the ten arms, he caught two ‘graspers.’
Shushushushu— KANG!!
A spear-like tendril that had thrust in sharp between attacks was cut off and fell. An alien feeler a squid uses to seize prey.
Apparently it had been one of Goaten’s ploys. When it was knocked away, a hairline crack ran across his face.
Chance!
There are Constellations who fight only by overwhelming output. The likes of Blazing Constellation of Flame 火, Uki. But Goaten did not.
Which is why now, flustered, was his first opening. With a big motion, Glory gathered the curse’s mana at his blade tip—
“My body’s still heavy.”
His eyes went wide. Goaten was behind his back.
...Since when!!
『Briar Walk』—after a burst-acceleration ability, the blade came for Glory’s lower back before he could react.
Thwup—
Goaten’s eyes narrowed. His forearm split and began to cough blood. Because an invisible blade had sunk in.
It was Elize’s blade tip.
***
“Children.”
A bewitching smile sat at the corner of the adult woman’s lips.
“Take them.”
The Nibelung Family’s very best assassins—those called, colloquially, the “Guard”—were monsters eroded by Black Darkness⚉.
Their role, all of them assassins, was to prepare the enemy to be easy for their mistress to eat.
“Deploy.”
At the Guard Captain’s word, they all moved.
“Deploy—”
Figures in pure black masks dispersed like smoke, a single thread of darkness.
『 Dark Rail 』
Darkness⚉ makes human feet sluggish. It enervates the heart. It grows fear. It blinds vision. In the end it erodes the target.
Eve drew the holy sword 「Peacebringer†」 and burst light. She grasped it by instinct. Immediately after, the world before her eyes sank into darkness.
“Hey! We have to get out! Outside this range!”
Balmung knew his mother’s tricks better than anyone. Along with the Radiant Constellation⁺₊⋆, the Black Darkness Constellation⚉ too was a dominator of territory. If you got outside the territory, you might live.
Sadly, Eve could not hear the sound.
Only, the light moved.
Kang! Ka-kang! Ka-ka-ka-kang!
Every Guard was [combat-type]. By instinct, whenever she felt danger, Eve raised her sword and blocked the attacks. Kang! Ka-kang! She blocked a few. Thud— slice— A few she couldn’t properly stop.
Darkness⚉ seeped into the places cut. Eve suddenly felt her feet grow heavy. As a Stigma directly wielded by the Black Darkness Constellation⚉, it was effective even on her, a demon.
In the midst of this—KAANG!!!—one Guard who took a clean hit, even though it was just one strike, was deeply hewn and went down.
Eve was slightly surprised, for she had to make sure the opponent hadn’t died.
Luckily, they hadn’t.
But Eve clutched her lower belly.
“You’re really strong, huh?”
In that moment the Matriarch’s face showed under the holy sword’s light. Ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-KANG!! She blocked five claws. When the huge claws pressed Eve to the building’s roof, a test of strength began.
“I like you. Worthy of my trust and to follow me.”
“......?”
“Look at my son. The moment the darkness burst, he got out of here, didn’t he? When you fight the Lord of Eternal Return, I can be of help. I’m the mistress of darkness, you know.”
“......???”
But Eve, not understanding a word, knit her brows and moved her knee while lying down.
It was a knee kick.
Crack!!
As the Matriarch’s face twisted from a shot to the groin—
“Kuk—”
The Matriarch swept both hands’ black claws and began to devastate the building’s rooftop.
Shwaaa— shraaa—
With a single flick of her hands, dozens of centimeters of concrete and rebar burst like paper. Eve fell into the interior of the building. Office workers who had been at their desks screamed and fled.
“Uwaaah!”
“G-get away! What is this?!”
Office workers who had suddenly been wrapped in darkness were panicking. Eve scattered Peacebringer’s light to indicate a path out, and again clutched her lower belly.
“Sturdy, aren’t you, miss.”
The Matriarch searched for Balmung’s presence in the distance. As an assassin, his stealth had gone quite high; she couldn’t sense him easily. Maybe he’d run.
“Go bring him.”
“At your command!”
After sending the Guard, she decided to kill Eve for just a moment.
“But pretty sky-blue young lady—why haven’t you said a word since before?”
“......?”
“No matter how much you hate me, we can exchange a word or two, can’t we? We’re going to be comrades going forward.”
“......??”
The Matriarch lifted the blade-like claw of her fingertip and licked the blood. It was blood brushed from Eve’s forearm.
The taste—
truly—
“...What are you.”
The Matriarch’s eyes went wide.
She dove urgently into the darkness and surfaced right in front of Eve.
KAAANG!
After several blows were blocked—
Ten claws from two spread hands closed in on Eve like a trap.
Eve chose to break through. She dove for the Matriarch at the center.
When the Matriarch gaped her mouth, her cheeks tore up to below her ears, and her tongue became another claw, stabbing for Eve’s eye.
Ka-ka-kang!!
Peacebringer’s inherent shield batted it away. At the same time Eve squinted and opened distance, her hand going to her lower belly.
“I see.”
Rapture bloomed on the Matriarch’s face.
“You can’t use that abomination for long, can you?”
At once she flicked her finger. Ttak!
『 Summon Black-Obsidian Coffin 』
Startled, Eve looked around. Pure-black rectangular prisms encircled her. Even if she hurriedly smashed her way out, the entire region was darkness, so material stock was plentiful. Another cube tried to close her in again.
『 Pillars of the Dead 』
At the same time, pillars thrust vertically erased Eve’s sense of direction. She ran backward and crashed to the floor, got up and fell again.
『 Coffin 』
In that gap, a lid descended and closed over the black coffin that had trapped Eve.
『 Funerary March of Black Darkness 』
That was the beginning.
The force of darkness took the form of Reapers and ambushed Eve. At the same time, the darkness began to dig into her wounds.
Eve blocked or batted them away with 「Peacebringer†」, but she kept feeling her insides twisting.
“The silly, cocky boy you wanted to make a comrade already left.”
Her body was growing heavier by the moment.
The torment was building.
“So how about me instead? Auntie’s good at this.”
For this chain-casting of Stigma abilities, even the Matriarch couldn’t move. She had to concentrate. In other words, the assassin Matriarch, even at the cost of giving up movement, was trying to lengthen the time Eve held the holy sword.
‘......!’
Eve gritted her teeth, smashed the 『Black Coffin』 and rushed the Matriarch—
and whenever she did, the Matriarch restored the 『Black Coffin』 again to bar her.
A line showed in the gap.
『 ―― 』
Eve burst the ticklish power in her heart. A great light gathered on the holy sword.
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA!!
Smashing the 『Black Coffin』 completely and charging the Matriarch, Reapers threw their bodies to shield the woman. No matter how intense the shell, after it smashed through a dozen walls it would lose force. The instant her strike was blocked, Eve buckled with the sensation of her guts twisting.
Over her, the 『Black Coffin』 formed again...... As Eve looked around, feeling thwarted—
Sswweaaaaaaak —
In the instant, when her strength had flagged and urgency hit—
A single streak of even deeper darkness tore through all other deep darkness and came flying.
For the Matriarch’s temple.
Thuk —
After her left temple was pierced—
Her right temple blew out.
The darkness scattered.
Eve turned her head and looked there. In the distance, Balmung, blood-soaked, having felled four of the Guard, came into view. He shouted.
“Who says I left!!”
Eve’s face brightened slightly. She’d thought he’d run.
But separate from the gusto of his shout—the fight wasn’t over yet.
Matriarch Nibelung’s twisted head moved slightly. Even with her skull burst and blood streaming down, her eyeballs shifted sideways.
Toward Balmung.
At once, a black, smoke-like darkness came flying. Balmung leapt into the air in haste, but the trailing edge grazed his leg as it passed. Then something shocking happened.
“Graaah!!”
Balmung’s left leg began to wither and shrivel like straw.