Chapter 617 – Loss and Hurt
000
After the trail of the reddish sword draws a crescent moon into the air, what falls to the ground is a human arm like a thick branch of a dead tree.
And after quickly grabbing the bamboo tube tied to the rope that fell off his arm, Rakshasa quickly put it into his bosom.
Of course, it would be normal for a bandit member whose arm had been cut off to scream in pain, but he was deprived of control over his body and mind by imprinting, and he did not even have the freedom to do so.
As if to make up for the lack of sound, screams burst from the mouths of passers-by who were walking around a beat late.
“What, what!? Murder!?”
“Someone call the tongue, knights or guards!”
Rakshak, who had his face and hands covered in blood from the other party, could not stop his feet to explain the situation to them.
After quickly brushing off the blood on the demonic sword, returning the sword to its scabbard and trying to turn around—
“Hey. Where are you going in such a hurry?”
A voice from behind calling me.
The man she had just cut down staggered from his seat and called out to him with an eerie smile.
However, Rakshaka knew very well that the owner of that voice was not the man in front of him.
Rachal turns away with a swish and resists the urge to crush that annoying grin with his fist, even now.
“Oh… I learned how to make a pretty scary face. Did you, too, start to be dyed here?”
To his voice, which seemed to be mocking somewhere, Rakshaal answered him with a stern expression while clenching his fists.
Although she was not aware that she had been stained by him, even Raksha knew that this intense feeling running through her body like never before was ‘anger’.
“I don’t have time to chat with my brother. …It’s just two people. I just need to stop two more people from now on.”
“Okay? Do you want to go that far and protect this Asteris? A bunch of insignificant humans in this world of no value.”
At the words of his brother, who spoke of himself as a being other than human, Rachal felt disgust that turned his inside out, but he turned his head and moved his legs to find the next bomb.
“The value judgment between my brother and I has already diverged too much. Even if you talk like this, you won’t understand.”
The words he uttered like that would not have been heard by his own brother.
001
While Rachal was looking for other members of the thieves, Gaios had entered the wide cavity under the Great Hall with an adamantite bomb sealed in a crystal with his own power.
This was a wide cave that continued under the divine tree, and it was also a place that Gaios used as a nest in the very long past.
It’s been hundreds of years since he moved the nest to another place because he was worried about the roots of the tree that stretched out from above his head, but it was only a moment to feel nostalgic as if he had returned to his old hometown.
Confirming that he could feel the vibration inside the crystal, Gaios set it down on the ground.
Even on the way here, the bomb was slowly destabilizing, and it was not difficult to see that even if it exploded underground, it would cause an explosion that could cause damage to the ground.
However, in this space where the magical power of the earth is strengthened, even if oneself disappears, the seal on this crystal will not be broken by carving one’s own magical power into the crystal.
“Whoa…”
No matter how much he is a dragon himself, after going through this kind of thing, Gaius thought that he would know what humans mean when the heart becomes chewy, and Gaios cautiously brought his finger to the crystal.
At that time-
“Gaios…”
Hearing a familiar voice calling him from behind, Gaios turned his head to see Nayuta, who had descended to the basement wearing the attire of a great shrine maiden.
“Nayuta? Why are you here… Now, didn’t you have to be with the other priests to prepare for the festival?”
“Huh. She said to take a break, and got out.”
Preparing for the festival of the Five Elements Festival was a bit difficult for Nayuta, who was accustomed to preparing for various rituals and ceremonies.
For example, in order not to introduce unclean things into her body, she must eat only the kind of purified food designated by the shrine.
And that purified food, like a handful of rice, a sip of water, and two or three raspberries, was a small amount of food that rabbits would eat, but Nayuta didn’t seem very energetic.
Already, it’s been a week or so since she started preparing like that, so it wouldn’t be strange that the flesh on her face or arms would fall off – even so…
Even as Gaios watched her, he held her hand tight and took hold of her heart as she tried to weaken herself.
It was obviously harsh to have her head priestess do the above, but her other priestesses and priestesses knew each other well enough that she was not trying to harass her with her ill feelings.
To that extent, it was only that the divine tree growing on this land—the tree of life—was a dangerous existence that had to be managed with great care.
For the priestess who needs to communicate with that divine tree, she needs to get rid of all the unclean aura left in her body beforehand.
“Then go to your room and rest.”
“Huh…”
Nayuta said that while tucking her hair behind her ear with one of her hands. But before she turned around, she cautiously opened her mouth as if she had something to say to Gaios.
“Hey Gaios. Nachal is-“
When the name of Rakshara came out of Nayuta’s mouth, Gaios unknowingly flinched at her.
The fact that Rakshasa had disappeared was widespread even within the temple, but only Gaius knew why he had disappeared and where he had gone.
If you don’t say anything about him, at least no one will accuse Rakshasa.
“Are you alright? Wasn’t he hurt?”
“…”
To her question, Gaius couldn’t help but make a face that he didn’t know what to answer for a moment.
The fact that she, she knows that she has met Rakshaka, is the same, but the fact that she is worried about Rakshaka, whom she can only regard as someone who apparently ran away.
But, alas. Is it like that?
Those two—especially Nayuta—had formed a deeper bond with Rakshasa than she thought.
That is, even compared to that of Gaius Suwa, who has always been by her side since she was born in this world, she is not inferior.
Nayuta seemed to already know some of the things Gaios was hiding.
“…It’s okay if it’s him. It hurt a little, but I healed it.”
“I see. …Then, when can I come back?”
“Soon. I will be back until the Five Elements Festival begins.”
At Gaios’ words, Nayuta let out a sigh as if she was relieved, and Gaios went closer to Nayuta and held her in his arms.
“…Don’t worry, Nayuta. This Asteris and you too… Me and the Rakshasa will protect you.”
“Huh. Let’s be sure to succeed, the Five Elements…”
Like that, wait, around the time I was holding on to my weakened heart.
Thinking that she could feel the presence from behind Nayuta, Gaius raised her head and looked at the figure appearing beyond her stairs.
A priest wearing a long hat that stretched upwards, wearing a mask, came down and looked at the two.
“Did you come to pick up Nayuta?”
As she released Nayuta from her arms, she said that to the priest, and the priest nodded her head.
It was the first time a priest had ever responded with gestures rather than words, but Gaius thought for a while and then patted Nayuta on the shoulder, and Gaius himself turned around to finish his work.
At that time, when I tried to walk out again, if I didn’t strengthen the seal of the crystal.
“Eh!? For a moment!”
When Gaius turned her eyes to Nayuta’s urgent voice coming from behind – there, he saw the priest holding Nayuta by the wrist and trying to take her upstairs.
“Hey! The body of the great priestess is so arbitrary-!”
But, next moment. Gaios couldn’t complete the sentence when he saw the deep-rooted hatred for Nayuta and Gaios in the eyes through the priest’s mask.
Instead, he swung his hand and tried to separate the body of the man and Nayuta for a moment.
Gaius saw.
The moment he thought that a sphere of magical power tinged with turbulent darkness had appeared on the man’s hand.
This space—to be precise, as if dividing the area right in front of him and Nayuta—a semi-transparent, eerie magic swirled around, a “Disconnection area” Had arisen.
“This is… The magic of the dimensional manipulation system! No way, you… Adam’s!?”
There were very few left in this world that could use such magic.
And, if dragons like him and the great priestesses, who are no different from heretics to them, are beings that can be hated.
Inevitably, he could only be thought of as a member of ‘the church’.
Watching the color of the transparent magic barrier surrounding him gradually darken, Gaios tried to escape this space by injecting magic power into his magic organ and returning to his original form.
However, her attempts were in vain.
“The magic of the earth…!”
This space has already been assimilated into a gap in another dimension.
The magical power of the earth, which can be said to be the source of her power, has rapidly diminished, and even the magical power needed to transform her body is not properly supplied.
Although it is said to be the strongest species in its own world, the moment the connection with the original world is cut off, it becomes difficult to exert its power in the gap of another dimension where elemental magic, the source of power, almost does not exist.
“Kuh…”
And it wasn’t just the magic of her space that hindered her.
Gaios turned her body around in a swish at the intense magical power that attacked her whole body.
There, a purple-colored dragon with a strangely distorted body was glaring at Gaios with its eyes shining.
It was a dragon with a tattered appearance, as if the corpse had not been properly glued together even after attaching it.
Bizarre growths and exposed bones thanks to growth through the skin.
That dragon with an appearance close to undead.
As soon as Gaius met the dragon’s eyes, the possibility of ‘no way’ passed through his head, but nevertheless, he raised the dragon heart inside his body to the limit and took a fighting stance.
“…Even if I can’t return to my true self…!”
002
Racchal, who retrieved the bomb from the third carrier, checked the last thief with his own eyes from a distance and put his hand on the sword at his waist.
‘If we just get rid of that guy, Asteris and Nayuta can be safe. After that, find his older brother. Wiping out the remaining bombs and remnants…’
“There it is! Catch it!”
An angry shouting sound came from behind the Rakshasa who was walking while muttering.
Naturally, when Raksha, who thought it was going toward the thief, came to his senses and turned his head – there, he could see that the soldiers of the palace of the East were approaching him with their weapons standing.
And then he’ll pass by himself and catch the thief—” He was about to breathe a sigh of relief.
When you feel the sound of the clanking armor surround you and stop, you look around.
“──”
It was to face the fact that what the soldiers were trying to catch was themselves, not bandits.
“Rakshasa, the escort under the direct control of Daemu-nyeo… There are several eyewitnesses who say that you cut people on the street, stole things, and ran away. You’ve finally lost your mind, the dark horse clan.”
Hearing the soldier’s voice that seemed to despise him, Rachal could only stare blankly at him, unable to continue what he had to say.
“I can’t even make excuses. Subdue the guy And there are testimonies that he has dangerous items, so be careful.”
“Wait! Now more than me, thieves with bombs…!”
“Ignore the madman’s lies.”
Watching the captain of the soldiers talking as if he didn’t even have to listen to himself, the rachal bit his lower lip.
I could tell who he was working for by looking at the insignia on his chest.
‘Enrai’s…!’
He started to become Nayuta’s escort warrior, and he noticed that he was here for what purpose and under whose orders he was wearing an insignia with the pattern of a noble family who had been quarreling with him at every turn.
Even if he made excuses, Rakshak, who thought it would not work, had to move his body somehow to get out of this siege.
The remaining time is about 1 minute.
After that time passes, everything around him, including himself, will disappear.
‘…Now that it’s like this, even if we subdue them in reverse…’
Once the culprits are caught, the whole truth will be revealed.
With that thought in mind, the moment Rakshala tried to pull out her sword.
“To intrude into someone else’s game. I have no manners.”
The moment after I thought I heard an eerie voice from behind the captain who was commanding the soldiers.
His body split in two and he fell to the ground, spewing his blood.
“Hee, heehee!!”
No matter how strong a human being was, he could easily imagine how absurd it would be to amputate a human being centered on the top of his head.
When the soldiers saw the clan of masked black horses standing among the bloodied corpses of their captain, they were terrified and pointed the tips of their weapons at him.
“——Hey, wait a minute!”
And before Rakshal could stop them and his brother, when his brother leaped out like lightning with his sword, stirring through his soldiers-
They each fell to the ground like dominoes in an instant, with their limbs, waists, and necks severed, leaving the surroundings in a sea of blood.
Then, after brushing off the blood on the sword, she approached the Raksha who was making a puzzled expression and put her hand on his shoulder.
As before, when the screams of passersby echoed through the streets, the brothers of Rakshasa laughed and talked.
“Look. You said it didn’t make any sense? A world like this.”
“Kuu…!!!”
Not only did he not solve his doubts, but his doubts would have deepened.
From the outside, it was because the clan of dark horses who suddenly appeared to protect Rakshasa had annihilated the soldiers.
The place where the imprint on the shoulder was engraved throbbed.
“The game is over. Rachal. Because I was planning on making a deal with you from the beginning.”
And the next moment, Raksha’s brother took out the adamantite bomb he had in his arms.
It was tossed it high into the sky.
“No!!”
When Rakshal screamed something like a scream, Raksha’s demonic sword, Io, pulled itself out and created a sphere of powerful magical power to cover the adamantite bomb.
It was the same sensation as when Gaios sealed the adamantite bomb with a crystal earlier.
However, there is a difference – that the sphere of magical power could not completely block the adamantite bomb.
When the adamantite bomb explodes, surpassing the sphere’s binding power.
As it was, the fragments scattered in all directions along with the intense flash turned into a ball of fire and fell on top of Asteris.
Literally, in an instant, the surroundings became a mess.
Because they are basically made of wood, buildings in the Eastern countries, which are weak against fire, began to burn roaringly in no time.
People who had fire thrown over their heads let out painful screams and died on the spot.
The part that was simply caught in the explosion had disappeared as if it had been swallowed up in subspace, so if this had exploded on the ground without diminishing in power.
The brother of Nachal who clicked his tongue.
However, Rakshala swung his sword at his brother, burning red anger in his black eyes, as if he had finally overcome the limit of his anger there.
“You, you son of a bitch!!!”
Caang!
Opposite of straight Io, Echidna with a missing blade.
As the two collide, they make noise, but both sides do not lose their strength at all and engage in a close contest of strength.
“Do you have the remaining bombs? If so, ask for it back. You’re the original brother, aren’t you?”
“Refuse! I might have been thinking that somewhere… I still have to save you. …But not anymore You really have become a monster whose last line doesn’t exist.”
Racchal said so, taking a step forward towards his brother, thrusting his sword hard.
The brother slightly furrowed his eyebrows at the fact that his sword was being pushed back, but Rakshasa shouted regardless.
“I no longer consider you a brother. …You are my enemy! Yasha!”
And finally.
For the first time in my life so far, I shouted that I would sever my relationship with him by uttering the name of my brother.
003
At some point, the sky was filled with dark clouds and it was raining.
Possibly, this might be the effect of the adamantite bomb, while forcibly reverting the thought flowing in a strange direction without his knowledge.
Rakshasa looked down at the human body, where the hot blood flowing through his hands was gushing out.
The smell of blood, gunpowder, and death overflows everywhere you look.
During the battle between Rakshasa and the yaksa, his men ran amok here and there in Asteris under the control of the yaksa, even though there were no bombs.
Thanks to this, many people lost their lives, and many were destroyed and reduced to ashes.
And-
“… So bad…”
Rakshasa looked down at the yaksha, who had pierced his heart with his demonic sword, carrying his weight with a hand on his shoulder.
The battle was really close.
Both Iodo and Echidna were powerful demonic swords, and each knew each other’s numbers.
However, there is a very subtle difference between a person who has nothing to lose and a person who needs to be protected.
It decided the end of the game.
“Really… I lost…”
The yaksa poured out a handful of blood from his mouth and muttered that in a dry voice.
The torn heart will no longer recover its function, and the yaksha will meet his death within a few minutes.
Looking at him like that, Raksa looked at the place where his left arm had been.
Where have you gone?
“Ha… Ha ha… In the end, is it going to be like this… I- can’t we win against opponents?”
The yaksha smiled as if to help himself somewhere.
It wasn’t the ‘made-up laugh’ I’ve heard from him until now, but it felt like a genuine laugh, but-
The irony of laughing at oneself was intensely felt.
“…Fate is just disgusting.”
The raksha who heard the words of the yaksa, likewise-
He spoke to him as he felt the pain slowly fading away from the echidna lodged in his stomach.
Fortunately, it got out of the way, but it must have been a dangerous wound nonetheless.
“—It’s not like fate. Yasha.”
When the rachal said so, the yaksa flinched at him and looked up at his brother.
“…I just became stronger than you.”
“… Haha!”
And, at Raksha’s declaration of victory, the yaksa laughed out loud as if it were absurd…
Just like that, the strength drained from his whole body, and he fell to the ground as if sliding.
At the same time, the yaksha’s demonic sword, Echidna, disintegrated into magic and disappeared.
“…Finished…”
The yaksa sat down on the spot as if he were kneeling.
Nayuta in the temple would be safe, and Asteris could have been prevented from being completely destroyed.
Even so, too many innocent people were caught up in death.
Thinking about it, he couldn’t shake off the fact that he was guilty of not stopping his brother earlier.
He knew that it was important to survive and pay for his sins, but it was when Rakshak bent down at the sense of shame that came over him.
“Rachal!”
When the young man suddenly came to his senses at the sound of a voice calling him, he raised his head.
In the distance, a girl who had become quite speechless was running toward him.
She was equipped with the costumes of a great priestess, but her torn clothes were probably so damaged that she couldn’t be used in a ceremony.
When she thought that her clothing had her fairly powerful defensive spells hanging on her, she thought that she might have been in a really dangerous situation, and her heart sank involuntarily. Sat down
Fortunately, there was a little dirt on it, but it didn’t seem to hurt.
And- after that.
I could see Gaios walking towards the Rakshals, all in tatters and covered in blood.
Even though she was so severely injured that she was comparable to herself, she seemed relieved somehow after seeing Nayuta run towards the rakshasa.
And that was when Nayuta, who had arrived in front of her, was about to embrace her rake.
[Did the ‘Shadow’ fail? If so – it’s time for ‘light’ to take over that will.]
Rakshasa and Yaksha. Dark demons from two previous lives, split from the same soul.
A yaksha who had strong darkness and was a shadow that nurtured it.
And, on the contrary to such a yaksha, a raksha who built a true bond and escaped darkness and became light.
But – what lies at their root is, after all, a chain of deep hatred passed down over and over again from previous lives.
I don’t know if Rachal knew it, but that’s when I thought that someone’s voice, neither Io’s nor his brother’s, rang in my head.
The voice echoed as another intense headache filled his head.
“Kuh, evil…!! Aaaaagh!!”
The pain felt in the stomach and shoulders was excruciatingly painful.
And at some point, there were several human shadows standing around him.
Each of them muttered something different, but he could tell that one of them was his brother, ‘Yaksha’.
[Destruction to the world of lies]
[End of false order]
[Complete the mission]
[Inherit the will]
If you think you heard a cracking sound.
Io’s blade, his own magic sword, could be seen cracked.
I don’t know what the heck is going on – his human side is wearing away so fast that he can’t even remember who the girl in front of him was.
“Rachal!?”
When Nayuta raised her voice, startled by the sudden rampage of dark magic power, the wind-like tension created by the magic pressure pushed Nayuta away.
The magic sword, entwined in the whirlpool of magical power, flew into Nayuta’s hand as if it were sticking to it.
“This…?”
And the moment he grabbed the sword, information about what the Raksha was facing flowed into Nayuta’s head.
Although I couldn’t hear Io’s voice, I could tell that the Rakshasa was on the verge of being controlled by the jet-black will that had been going on for a long time.
And what he could do for Rachal now.
Nayuta stood up from her seat.
This is because while holding Io in his hand, he was able to withstand the tension of the dark magic that erupted from Rakshasa to some extent.
And then, when you slightly turn your head and make eye contact with Gaios with a puzzled expression-
“…!”
Gaios must have been able to read a certain will from her eyes.
Slowly, slowly. When Nayuta started walking toward the temple, Gaius tried to raise all her magical powers to stop her.
But the body doesn’t move properly.
For her, too, her death struggle had been waged.
The magic of the other dimension clinging to his body had not yet been completely purified.
“No, no… Nayu, ta…”
That’s how she called Nayuta’s name, but she couldn’t reach her.
No, Nayuta wouldn’t stop even if it touched.
Nayuta held Raksha’s sword in her trembling hand, and she approached the rakusa in pain.
“…Rachal…You were carrying so much pain all by yourself…”
At the voice calling her name, Rakshara lifted her head, which she was holding onto with her free arm, and looked at ‘someone’.
“…Because I know what kind of person Rakhal is.”
Saying so, Nayuta channeled her own magic power to Io.
A bit of divine magic mixed with her demonic sword, sparks like her reaction to rejection flew out.
As it was, Nayuta knelt down on her knees and hugged the body of her beloved lover.
“… I won’t let you hurt yourself. Just like Nachal tried to protect me…”
And– He lifted Io straight up and stabbed it through Nayuta’s stomach from Raksha’s back.
When her flowing blood connected, nothing stood in the way of the two.
[…
Io’s voice seemed to be heard by Nayuta just before the end.
Then, Nayuta uses her own body to pay for the “Sealing ceremony to defeat the threat of the world” That was permitted to her grandmiko.
It was an instant thing.
The trunk of the tree stretched out and wrapped around Nayuta, Rakshasa, and Io.
Gaios knew about that spell.
Nayuta wanted to use her own life to finish all her work with Rakshasa before Raksha’s dark magic ran out of control and caused more damage to those around her.
The rapidly growing tree stretches up into the sky, as if time passed quickly.
And as the rampage of black magic was gradually suppressed.
Rachal finally found out who she was with.
When the last moment of putting her name in her mouth has passed.
The sky, which had been filled with dark clouds, slowly began to clear.
Right next to the mountain of ruins and corpses—there was only a tall tree, if not as tall as a divine tree.
The sound of Gaius’ body collapsing from his knees to the ground as he watched the end of everything came.
The dark horse clan from the previous life had stolen many things from Asteris that day.
