Chapter 9
The Sacred Sword and the ominous spear.
The two immense forces clashed.
Boom—!
The two weapons met head-on, their forces canceling each other out. The dungeon echoed with a deafening crash, as though two colossal beasts had collided.
But the shock wave sent Arti and Aria flying backward.
“Guh—!”
“Eek…!”
Arti eventually lost his grip on the Sacred Sword. The blue blade dispersed in midair like mist. The muscles in his twisted arm screamed in pain.
Amid sinister flames,
the skeletal rider swept past them.
Clop-clop
Clop-clop
The sound of hooves receded, but the rider was still circling nearby. It was obvious that it would turn around and charge them again.
Arti’s blood ran cold.
“!”
He had been disarmed in front of the enemy in the middle of battle—a desperate situation. But something else made him even more anxious.
‘I can summon the Sacred Sword again, but I have to protect the Saintess…!’
Arti gave up on forcing himself to his feet. Instead, he wrapped both arms around Aria to shield her. After rolling several times, he was left battered and bruised.
He had taken the full impact alone.
Scrapes and cuts covered him,
and blood trickled from his scalp, where his hair had been torn away.
He barely braced himself against the ground,
then spoke to Aria in his arms, his voice trembling.
“S-Saintess… a-are you all right?”
“A-ah…!”
Aria was a little panicked by how quickly everything had happened. But she bit her lip and made a quick decision. Still held in Arti’s arms, she placed a hand on his back.
A faint golden glow flowed from her pale palm.
“B-blessing of the Sun… please…! Protect him….”
The light slowly seeped into Arti’s wounds.
Aria squeezed her eyes shut and focused only on healing him.
She set aside her usual gentle words. In a situation like this, she realized that taking action mattered more than thanking him for his sacrifice.
“!”
Arti said no more.
Instead, he set his second heart in motion and drew out his accelerated healing to the limit. It felt as though every fluid in his body were boiling.
‘Guh…! It’s hot, but…! Even if I have to push myself…’
Thanks to their combined efforts, Arti’s wounds recovered to some extent in an instant.
The two staggered to their feet. Each summoned a Sacred Sword, then made the sign of the cross and prepared for the next attack.
But the skeletal rider gave them no time to regain their footing. It aimed its spearhead at them again. Blue ghostfire streamed fiercely from its tip like a flag.
[Gwoooar—!]
The skeletal rider approached, waving its ominous banner.
“Guh!”
“Hah…!”
Arti raised the Sacred Sword, drew up his mana, and shouted.
“That thing from before—!”
“…!”
A desperate request with all the context stripped away.
Aria responded to the vague request.
“Great Sun—! Protect us!”
Golden radiance shone from her hands, forming a thin barrier that barely protected them both.
[Gwoooar—!]
The skeletal rider finally reached them and struck the obstructive barrier with its spear. At the same time, the Sun’s Veil shattered with a sound like glass smashed by an iron club.
Crash—!
It took time to swing the long spear and draw it back.
Instead, the skeletal rider’s ominous steed raised its forelegs high. Its hooves, brimming with blue ghostfire, were poised to smash the head of Arti, who stood in front.
“!”
In that fleeting movement, Arti spotted an opening.
The moment it had forcibly stopped to launch a follow-up attack!
‘Now—!’
An instinctive judgment.
Arti poured mana into both legs. His muscles swelled as if they would burst, gathering strength to reach the foe high above.
‘I’ll aim for the center of the blue flames…!’
The skeletal rider’s head, looking down from above.
“Haaah—!”
Arti leaped with the blue Sacred Sword held in both hands and thrust it forward. Faint mana streamed from his body in a straight line, its energy scattering the sinister flames.
The skeletal rider flinched at the Sacred Sword’s energy as it dispersed its flames. It was the instinctive reaction of an undead monster that feared holy attacks.
[…!]
Its momentary hesitation became an even bigger opening.
At last, the blade reached its target!
The strike pierced its left eye socket precisely.
Crack—!
The skeletal rider writhed. Ghostfire spewed from its mouth and eye sockets, but the embedded Sacred Sword sent the flames scattering in several directions.
[Gwoooar—!]
“Haaah—!”
Still astride the sinister horse, Arti desperately focused on the sensation at his fingertips.
In the depths of his unconsciousness,
he heard his master’s voice.
-Gather your strength at a single point. That is one of the core principles of swordsmanship.
“!”
Along his forearm,
past his wrist,
he focused every sensation into the tip of his sword.
‘This very moment—!! I’ll kill it—!!’
A faint blue mana condensed at the tip of the Sacred Sword. Gathered as thin as a needle, it shot toward the skeletal rider’s skull with explosive force.
Flash—
Like a stream of water compressed to a single point shattering a rock.
The mana shot forth and smashed half of the skeletal rider’s skull.
Blue ghostfire burst from the remaining skull fragments like an explosion.
Arti rejoiced.
He did it.
He protected them.
He defeated it.
‘I… can do this…!’
But.
The moment he saw a sinister black stake jutting from the skeletal rider’s spine amid the scattering blue ghostfire—
Arti felt a chill run down his spine.
“…Huh?”
[…!]
Creak
Creak….
The skeletal rider, its skull smashed, slowly began to move again. Black energy oozed viscously from the black stake.
*
Lydia broke through the flimsy cage and hoisted Mave over her shoulder.
“…Heave-ho.”
Mave was still twitching, her eyes rolled back. Of the four heroines, she had the most impressive figure and the fiercest bearing, but now she looked rather pathetic.
Foam dribbled from Mave’s mouth.
“Guh, glub….”
“….”
Lydia ignored her.
“…Good. I’ve rescued even the one who was farthest away.”
Three cadets were already draped across Lydia’s slender shoulders, wriggling. Yet her expression remained unchanged.
Toward Lydia,
five skeletons closed in from all directions, spewing ghostfire.
“Kyaaaak—!”
“….”
Lydia kicked them away one by one, her expression blank. Each kick made the air burst, and the skeletons were smashed to pieces without leaving a trace.
Skeletons sprang up from the ground again like weeds.
Lydia rescued the cadets and smashed the skeletons.
She looked like a farmer treading barley underfoot with a sack slung over her back.
‘…Strange. How can a mere early-game boss like the skeletal rider maintain an endless wave of trash mobs? Doesn’t it calm down after its summoning pattern ends?’
The skeletal rider was powerful ‘for an early-game’ monster. It was the kind of trap boss you might encounter by bad luck while exploring the dungeon, creating a tense situation.
But that was only in the early game.
Even if she made allowances for the difference between the game and reality… something was wrong. At this rate, even the instructors and assistants, seasoned elite warriors, would have a hard time dealing with it.
‘…This endless cursed flame has firepower closer to that of the monsters directly under the Dark Realm that appear after the middle of the original story, even if it is relatively weak. If its summoning power were this persistent, Instructor Zach would have stopped the class even in the original.’
“….”
But there had been no such description in the original. She was certain, since she had checked again last night in the ‘Library in a Dream.’
The skeletal rider was not a monster this powerful.
Through countless real battles, she knew better than anyone how closely the strength of this world’s monsters matched what she knew from the game.
That was why she had felt somewhat reassured….
‘…But for it to suddenly grow this strong?’
Things had changed from the original.
She had been prepared for it,
but not so soon.
Lydia pondered.
“….”
…No.
There had been cases like this.
In the original story,
undead monsters would sometimes appear one rank stronger than usual. In some cases, they even came back to life after being defeated once.
After the middle of the story,
this was caused by the ‘evil’ entangling itself with this world.
The sworn enemy of the secret society Ember Knights, and the mastermind behind this world—
‘Could the ‘Black Temple’ already be…?’
“!”
When Lydia’s thoughts reached that point, she hurriedly looked toward the skeletal rider’s battle. Ominous ghostfire, golden lightning, and blue mana were flickering faintly over there.
Rumble—!
Boom—!
“….”
Lydia furrowed her brow and murmured.
“I thought we were the first ones to throw things out of alignment. Had they already begun distorting things, too?”
She kept smashing skeletons as she tried to get the cadets to safety. She would have to go help Arti and Aria. But she felt no sense of urgency.
“…Hmm.”
It was an unexpected turn of events,
but they still held the initiative.
And they still had a card that had yet to shine.
If that card failed to shine, this encounter would end with nothing to show for it. But if it did… a most dependable sword would be born months ahead of schedule.
‘Arti, the one I taught… if it’s you as you are now….’
Could you,
manage it?
Lydia watched this chaotic battle unfold.
*
Rumble—!
Golden lightning shot forth,
and the skeletons that had been floating fell from the air.
Aria’s holy relic crumbled and disappeared as well.
“….”
It was a relatively precious consumable made of blessed silver, but she had used it without hesitation to cast holy spells in succession.
“Huff, huff…!”
She panted,
then turned to look at Arti.
Arti, too, was panting,
holding the Sacred Sword firmly.
The two panted in silence.
“….”
“….”
Surrounding them,
countless skeletons approached, their mouths full of ghostfire.
They were completely surrounded.
-Kyahahaha—!
-Kihihik—!
And at the far end of them all,
the headless skeletal rider, ghostfire burning where its skull had been, slowly approached. Its spear was so covered in ghostfire that it looked like a lance used in a jousting tournament.
[…]
Clop-clop
Clop-clop
The roars it had let out throughout the battle were gone.
But its quiet movements were even more imposing than before.
The exhausted pair could only fall silent before it.
“….”
“….”
They knew instinctively.
Death was right before them.
Arti panted as he gripped the Sacred Sword.
But.
At last, the Sacred Sword lost its form and scattered again. Arti’s stamina had reached its limit, and he could no longer maintain its shape.
“?!”
“?!”
Arti and Aria watched it and despaired.
“Guh…?!”
“….”
At the same time,
the skeletal rider spewed ghostfire from its entire body. A massive wall of flames surged into the air like a barrier, and the dungeon floor trembled.
[—!]
The surrounding skeletons also stretched out both arms and spewed ghostfire in time with the flames. The flames intertwined, and an ominous funeral began.
The energy of the curse filled the space.
Arti and Aria felt an intense cold.
“Hah…!”
“Hngh…!”
It was a sinister aura so powerful that the living could barely endure it. It was slowly eating away at them.
Even as he panted, Arti looked up at the flames with a desperate expression. He needed something to turn this situation around.
“….”
‘At this rate…. The Saintess, Aria….’
At that moment,
a quiet voice came from behind him.
“…Hero, please run.”
“…?!”
Arti turned around.
Aria was smiling.
“Run away and ask the princess for help.”
“…Saintess.”
“And follow her teachings, while continuing to think tirelessly for others. Even if the fate approaching us is unjust. Keep enduring.”
“….”
Arti was at a loss for words at her composed smile.
‘How could she, in a situation like this… how…?’
Just as he was about to say something,
he saw Aria’s trembling hand.
She wasn’t composed.
She had made up her mind.
“….”
Arti looked at her helplessly trembling hand and thought.
‘…Why did someone as useless as me become the Hero of the Sacred Sword?’
In his heart,
he thought of the person he trusted most.
“….”
My beautiful, powerful master,
please answer my question.
I—
Why am I a hero?
Until just two months ago, I was nothing but an ordinary boy digging in the dirt.
Was it simply because of fate?
“….”
There was no answer.
She was saving people right now.
The very people Arti could save only by winning….
“….”
‘What, exactly, is fate?’
In response to that question,
the Sacred Sword Dannan, sleeping once more beneath his right hand, answered.
【Fate is will.】
“…!”
Will.
The moment he heard those words,
an insight flashed through Arti’s mind.
-It is your choice whether to follow me.
-I want to help you.
-An academy… invitation?
Among everything that had happened up to now,
not a single thing had forced him to follow a predetermined fate.
Not even on the day he received the Sacred Sword….
That night,
when he had chased after Lydia—
“I chose everything… myself.”
【Wield your will.】
Arti clenched his empty hands. Then he answered Aria.
“…No. I won’t run away. I’ve decided.”
“Hero?!”
Arti turned his back and walked forward.
The flames of countless evil spirits blazed ahead, pressing in on him. A suffocating curse weighed him down.
But he kept walking.
Aria cried out as if screaming.
“No—! Run away—!”
“No, I’ll never run away.”
“Why?!”
Arti looked at Aria and smiled.
“This is a fight I chose.”
The Hero’s fate,
and the princess’s cause, he still didn’t understand….
“But at least I won’t abandon the people behind me and run away.”
The swordsmanship his master had taught him.
Attack and defense.
Among them, there was no such thing as ‘running away.’
The boy stood with empty hands, slowly taking up a swordsman’s stance.
“…?!”
Aria held her breath as she watched him.
His back,
even more than when he had held the dazzling Sacred Sword….
—was radiant and heroic.
“…Hero….”
Blue light shimmered from Arti’s body. It was not merely mana drawn out by the Sacred Sword. The will he had chosen was awakening his true power.
Arti made up his mind.
He could wield the ‘sword’ with a clearer mind than ever before.
He closed his eyes… and pictured it.
-Imagine the form of a fine sword with a blue blade.
The name of that sword was not ‘Dannan.’
It was the boy’s will.
【Wield your true will.】
“…!”
Before he knew it, a sword was in Arti’s hand. But its light was not the blue he had seen until now. It was a clear, radiant light, like the sun glimmering on a lake.
Arti murmured the words that came to mind.
[Sacred Sword, manifest—!]
A dazzling light shimmered in the boy’s hand.
He swung the shining sword.
What its tip traced
was the swordsmanship he had learned with his master….
Swordsmanship that endlessly forced him to choose.
Arti made his choice.
To protect people.
Flash—!
That light, freer than anything else,
sped swiftly through the air.
It was like a rising sun in the darkened crossroads. The dazzling sunlight purified the flames of countless evil spirits.
That light,
which had appeared in the world again for the first time in five hundred years.
It was the light of the true Sacred Sword.
Though it was only a small part of its full power….
It was enough to protect the people.
*
Lydia was satisfied as she watched the light.
“….”
She had not been wrong. Rather than simply being swept along by the original story, he had made his own choice—and the strength she had drawn out of the boy was now shining.
The light that should have appeared only after countless hardships
was shining now, far ahead of its time.
‘…Not bad for a first step.’
She smiled.
“Well done, Arti.”