Chapter 121
#Chapter 121: Demonic Sword Forte (23) - Like a Demonic Sword
“Huh?”
At the eerie sensation in her hand and the bizarre sight before her eyes, Pina Valestia unconsciously let out a dazed sound.
Objectively speaking, it could hardly be called a serious wound—or rather, damage.
A portion of the blade had broken off as though chipped, and a crack about the width of a fingernail had appeared inside it.
But to Pina, who had regarded Forte as a practically invincible sword until now, it was an enormous shock comparable to watching solid ground suddenly collapse.
《Don't just stand there dazed, contractor!》
There were two reasons Pina, who had been half out of her mind, was still able to react to the attacks that followed.
One was that her body, remembering the thorough training she had undergone, moved before her reason could; the other was that Forte himself urged her on without caring about his injury in the slightest.
Kaaaaaang!
Once again, sword collided with sword.
The Dark Knight's attacks were overwhelmingly powerful.
Every ordinary swing tore the air apart, and the surroundings collapsed from nothing more than the aftershock of the aura spilling over.
Pina somehow tried to divert the force of the attack, but the attempt failed, and her body was sent flying backward instead.
Just as the Dark Knight was about to launch another attack without pause,
“Aaaaargh!!”
A ball of fire flew in from the side, checking the Dark Knight's movement with a cry somewhere between irritation and fear.
When the Dark Knight, protected by armor of aura, turned to look at her, the demon Divana gritted her teeth.
She really did not want to get involved in this situation.
She had not grasped the Dark Knight's exact identity, but she could tell just by looking that the Dark Knight's power was anything but ordinary.
But she was already bound by a contract.
If Pina died before she received a declaration that the contract had ended, Divana herself would also die instantly.
If she did not want to die, she had no choice but to help Pina, whether she liked it or not.
While the Dark Knight and Divana engaged each other, Pina, who had been sent flying into a corner, was in turmoil.
“M-My demonic sword. What, what should I do…?”
《Prepare to fight, contractor. Divana won't last long. And once that one goes down, you're next.》
“But!”
At the calm words, Pina unconsciously raised her voice.
“It's, it's because of me, isn't it? This happened because I couldn't properly wield you, my demonic sword…!”
Pina knew.
Long ago, during the battle against the Demon King, the sword held by the Hero had performed its role without any problems.
Yet Forte, who was even more powerful than that sword, had begun to break after barely one clash because Pina's skill was overwhelmingly inferior to the Hero's at the time.
“If I had really been the Hero, if only…!”
To her, Forte was not merely a weapon.
He was a companion with whom someone as awkward around people as she was could feel at ease, a teacher who showed the way to someone as inexperienced as her, and a support that allowed her to remain herself when she felt she was about to be consumed by another person's memories.
That being might break because of her.
When she thought of it that way, Pina could not find the courage to raise her sword and fight.
“Rather—”
She had been about to say that they should run away.
There were more than enough reasons.
Their enemy was a Transcendent formed from the fusion of the legendary Demon King and Sage. It was not a calamity that an inexperienced student like her could hope to withstand.
The masterminds behind this incident were the leaders of the various nations who had driven the Sage's party into a corner long ago—not Pina, who bore no responsibility whatsoever.
Above all, if Pina charged in again, there was an extremely high chance that the result would simply be a meaningless death. There was nothing wrong with running away in order to survive, was there?
“Rather…”
But.
Even though she knew all of that,
for some reason, the words telling them to run away would not leave Pina's lips.
And as though he had seen through that hesitation, Forte spoke.
Not to hurry her, but to give clear words to what Pina was already thinking.
《If you don't fight, everyone in this academy will lose their lives.》
《If you don't fight, that poor mage will dance like the Demon King's puppet without even knowing what she is doing.》
Someone might say, What does that matter?
They might argue that their own life mattered more than anyone else's, and that whatever went wrong here was not their responsibility.
Forte did not deny such opinions.
Certainly, it was not a sin.
But there were people in this world who could not draw such a line.
People who stepped forward for things they did not need to, helped with things they were not obligated to help with, and felt responsible for things they did not need to take responsibility for.
Foolish, stubborn, idiotic people.
And Forte liked fools like that.
《Contractor. No, Pina.》
With a sudden jerk,
Pina's trembling movement came to a stop.
《I am a sword. No matter how sharp or sturdy I am, no matter how many functions I possess, if no one uses me, I am nothing more than a decoration.》
《You are my contractor. You are the one with the right to take me up and swing me. You are the one who gives meaning to my existence.》
《If you hesitate to fight because of me, if you try to break your own convictions and run away because you are afraid of losing me,》
《I will never be able to forgive myself.》
The magic power flowing from Forte's blade caressed the back of Pina's hand.
The lump of iron without warm blood or soft flesh, the lost child severed from its source, conveyed its will to its wielder in that way.
《Do you remember what I said when we first made our contract?》
《No matter what kind of threat my opponent was, I would protect you. That is what I told you.》
《Do you not trust me?》
Pina's lips trembled as she tried to form disjointed words.
However, she suppressed all of them and uttered only one word.
“I do.”
《Then grip me. Me, Forte. The demonic sword in this world meant solely for you.》
“…Yes!”
Pina's hand closed around Forte's hilt.
After a regrouping period that felt extraordinarily long but had in reality lasted very little time, the demonic sword's contractor leaped back onto the battlefield.
***
Barely dodging the Dark Knight's fiercely incoming sword, Divana screamed inwardly.
‘He's at the level of a Great Demon!! How am I supposed to handle something like this alone?!’
Divana was a powerful demon.
From the moment she entered the direct service of one of the three lords of the Demon Realm and received missions directly from one of them, it would be fair to call her an elite even among demons.
But she was absolutely not powerful enough to call herself a Great Demon.
For example, even if the three demons deployed for this mission joined forces and stabbed 『Deception』 in the back, 『Deception』 would slaughter them as easily as playing with toys, without even showing her true strength.
That was the scale of the gap between a Great Demon and an ordinary demon.
Even so, the reason Divana had been able to hold out against the Dark Knight for roughly several dozen seconds was clear.
The Dark Knight had not gone out of his way to enthusiastically beat her down.
To prevent any misunderstanding, that was absolutely not mercy.
The Dark Knight had merely calculated.
If the Dark Knight tried to cut Divana's torso in a single stroke, depending on the variables, the Dark Knight might receive a fairly meaningful counterattack.
But if the Dark Knight merely cut off an arm, then even if several misfortunes overlapped, it would end with nothing more than a scratch.
Therefore, the Dark Knight cut off an arm.
With a little risk, the Dark Knight could also cut off Divana's head.
But even without taking that risk, the Dark Knight could cut through one of Divana's legs.
Therefore, the Dark Knight cut through a leg.
The Dark Knight did not take reckless risks.
The Dark Knight did not use trickery.
Even when a weakness seemed visible at a glance, the Dark Knight did not rush in carelessly, and did not react when she tried to provoke the Dark Knight.
An army that used only straightforward tactics.
A strong being without impatience, capable of waiting even in a situation with a 99% chance of victory until that 1% chance of defeat was reduced to a minor injury or less.
Divana felt as though she were repeatedly backing toward a cliff.
She knew that if she kept retreating like this, she would eventually fall over the edge.
But as long as the person in front of her continued to threaten her by swinging a sword, she could not stop backing away.
A futile struggle against certain destruction.
Just as she was about to let go in the face of that horror,
Flash!
A streak of light shot toward the Dark Knight.
Clang!
The slash aimed at the center of the Dark Knight's back was blocked without ever striking the Dark Knight.
Even while fighting Divana, the Dark Knight had remained constantly wary of Pina, so the surprise attack failed to serve its purpose as a surprise attack.
But Pina shouted without panicking.
“Run away! And make sure no one else gets caught up in this!!”
“Is this really the time to worry about other humans!? Worry about saving your own life!!”
Though she knew this was no time for an argument, Divana could not help shouting back.
Honestly, she was grateful that Pina had come back to fight instead of leaving her behind and running away.
But if Pina died, Divana would die as well.
At a time when it would not even be enough to use every human in the academy as bait and flee together, was Pina seriously telling her to evacuate the burdens who had fallen asleep and could not even move, all while continuing to fight?
“If I can keep no one from getting caught up in this until either I die or the Dark Knight falls, then you'll be free afterward!!”
Yet the human in front of her did not correct herself. Instead, she offered a deal under an absurd condition.
Even more ridiculous was that the instant Divana heard Pina's words, the chains of the contract binding her actually stirred.
It was proof that Forte, the entity at the heart of the contract, had accepted that preposterous proposal and amended the contract.
It was truly thorough of him to add detailed conditions preventing any trick such as killing Pina to end the contract in the meantime, but compared to the hopeless terms from before, these were undeniably far more manageable.
Rather than grumble any further, Divana snatched up Kailen, who had been hiding nearby because he was of no help, and flew quickly out of the tower.
It was not so much because she was particularly compassionate as because Kailen was also included among the ‘humans who must not get caught up in this.’
After confirming that, Pina quickly threw herself down the stairs.
Down and down she went, rushing mindlessly lower and lower, until she saw monsters standing frozen in a daze.
Without the slightest hesitation, Pina decapitated a gigantic troll.
【You have defeated a Giant Troll!】
【You have acquired 3000p!】
【Strength increases slightly!】
It was an extremely strange thing.
Pina was currently fighting the Dark Knight—in other words, the true ruler of this academy.
Under normal circumstances, the system would never reward Pina for anything she did.
That was right.
If the Sage of the Firmament were an intact Transcendent.
《Having experienced the Sage's memories, you know this. The Sage is currently in a state where the Demon King's influence has twisted his way of thinking.》
《He insists that the Demon King must be defeated, yet acts as the Demon King himself, and his hatred of the rulers has changed into indiscriminate slaughter.》
《But there are certainly parts of him that remain untwisted.》
《‘Reward those who work hard with compensation worthy of their efforts.’》
《That rule, that very idea, is like a clear ember remaining at the core of the Sage. No matter how much the Demon King distorts the Sage's thoughts, it is impossible for him not to grant the rewards themselves.》
《In the same vein, he cannot forcibly put you to sleep like the other students. Not as long as the Sage recognizes you as the Hero's successor.》
She cut, and cut, and cut.
She continued cutting down the motionless monsters, repeatedly fleeing to the next floor to escape the Dark Knight's pursuit.
《Our opponent is a Transcendent. No matter how hard we struggle, we cannot defeat a Transcendent.》
《But the Sage himself can defeat the Demon King.》
Objectively speaking, it was an act bordering on madness.
Fleeing from a Transcendent in itself was not easy.
Yet how much more insane was it to flee while doing other things along the way, rather than simply running away?
As the chase continued, wounds kept accumulating on Pina's body, and there were several moments when she nearly lost her life altogether.
It was truly a perilous, razor-thin balancing act.
《But this alone is not enough. At this rate, it will take too long to grow strong enough to face the Dark Knight.》
《Therefore, compress.》
The strange thing was that despite the circumstances, Pina's movements did not slow at all.
No, rather than slowing down, she grew faster and stronger each time she defeated a monster.
Astonishingly fast.
Dazzlingly rapid.
《I will absorb and reprocess every reward you gain from now on—even all the rewards you have accumulated at the academy until now.》
《Not into permanent enhancements, but into a one-time enhancement. It will remain effective only until the very moment this battle ends.》
《I will take away the light that would illuminate your future and burn it for a fleeting instant.》
《What do you think? Pretty demonic-sword-like, isn't it?》