novelThe Mercenary and the Knight's Encounter and Clash (1)
| ← Ch.134 | Ch.136 → |
Part 1
October 18th, 12:30 AM.
Forty-three elite knights stood on a mountain path on the outskirts of Folkestone in Southern England.
The leader of the coup d'état, Carissa, held Curtana Original in her hand.
An innumerable number of blades sought Third Princess Villian's life.
However, a single man stood in their way.
He was William Orwell.
He was a thug of a mercenary who was once to become a knight.
He held the spiritual item known as Ascalon in his hand. It was the result of a certain artist exaggerating the events of a true legend and calculating out all the necessary figures needed for the sword that had not actually existed to do what it was said to have done. As a result, it could theoretically kill a 50-foot dragon. What the man intended to do with that sword was quite simple.
He was not going to charge into the enemy lines and recklessly cut down the knights.
Nor was he going to create a trap or form a strategy and toy with the group all at once.
He simply brought up Ascalon and swung it down.
Doing so caused the ground at his feet to explode.
An explosive noise and a shockwave erupted.
A large amount of dust flew up and the curtain of dust obstructed the knights' vision almost instantly. The vibration that shook the earth was close to an earthquake and even the strictly trained military horses cried in fear.
"Tch!!" Knight Leader clicked his tongue amid it all.
A number of his subordinates drew back their bowstrings and fired arrows into the center of the explosion, but it was pointless.
The night wind swept away the dust.
No one was there. Only an ominous crack remained in the ground where Ascalon had been swung down.
"I see. You're thinking of Villian's safety first. If this area turned into a fierce melee, she could easily be killed, " muttered Second Princess Carissa as she calmed her horse."... At first glance it seems to have been a calm action, but it exposes your weakness. In your prime, you would have fought while protecting my pathetic little sister at the same time."
"What should we do?" asked Knight Leader.
Carissa gave a disinterested sigh in response.
"Bring me both their heads." She tightly gripped her sword that had no blade or tip."I will see how Curtana Original is doing and have it fit my hand. Have your results before I am done."
"Understood."
"This enemy may be your old friend, but don't go easy on him."
"I cannot think of an enemy that I am acquainted with, " said Knight Leader before running into the darkness without bothering to mount a horse.
The enemy was close.
At that distance, he would arrive more quickly on his own two feet.
Part 2
Third Princess Villian was being held within a certain mercenary's arm.
One arm held her and the other held the sword that was even larger than a human being, but there was no weight behind the mercenary's movements. In fact, William Orwell's trajectory was not that of a normal human.
His movements were not the movements of running.
Much like a ball thrown a long distance, he travelled over 20 meters with each step. His feet did not land just on the ground. Between his large leaps, he also found footholds on the trunks and branches of trees.
The bluish moonlight was quite striking.
The slicing cold air was pleasant.
The unique sense of floating felt like a release from the confined feeling that had been sticking to the princess.
The mercenary and the princess travelling across the night sky looked like something from a picture book.
It looked like something from the kingdoms seen in fairy tales, not the real Royal Family that had led her around as a political bargaining chip.
"Heh. Heh heh."
A laugh came from Third Princess Villian's lips.
Not even she knew why she was laughing.
Perhaps it was from the relief of escaping her immediate danger, perhaps it was the elation at having managed to outdo Second Princess Carissa who had seemed like a precipice before her, perhaps it was due to the fact that there was someone, even if it was just one person, that was willing to stand up for her, and perhaps it was simply due to the beauty of the scenery.
Whatever the reason behind it was, she laughed.
Her mouth opened wide for the first time in a very long time. She cast aside her fetters as the third princess of the United Kingdom and gave the defenseless laugh of a normal girl.
"Ah ha ha!! Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!"
She waved her arms and legs around in laughter so much it seemed she would slip from William's grasp, but the mercenary did not stop.
Finally, William Orwell arrived at an unilluminated mountain path.
He softly lowered the princess in his arm to the ground and Villian asked him a question.
"Hee hee. What are we going to do now?"
"You need to run away to somewhere safe."
As he responded, William walked over to a thicket a short distance from the mountain path. A small hill that looked like nothing more than a pile of dirt about a meter high stood there with a worn out cloth covering it. William removed the cloth and a horse made of metal with its four legs folded up underneath it lay below it.
Looking at the letters carved into the silver horse's surface, Villian's expression turned to one of puzzlement.
"Bayard... ?"
"It does not possess the effects of the horse dreamed of by the writer at the end of the 16th century, but it does possess the ability to slip past and hide from magical searches. As long as they do not see it with their naked eyes, the knights will be unable to find it."
"I see..."
"Bayard is set to the coordinates of a Necessarius hideout. Unlike the old fools at Canterbury, the magicians who actually fight will not abandon you."
Third Princess Villian breathed a very, very thin breath.
Not noticing this, the mercenary continued to check over Bayard.
"I will catch up soon, but you leave on Bayard. I will deal with the knights. At the very least, I will prevent them from tracking you, so you don't need to worry about anyth-..."
For the first time, William's words trailed off.
The reason was Villian's fingertips.
The third princess hung her head down and stretched out her hand slightly to grab at the mercenary's clothes.
"That's enough, " she said with a slight smile on her lips."What am I supposed to do after fleeing? What am I supposed to do just because you saved my life here? My sister will soon control all of the United Kingdom and I will then be dragged out to be executed even as I struggle. I will either be killed now or a bit later. That is all you are changing here."
Her smile lacked strength.
William Orwell merely looked at her expression.
"The Necessarius hideout Bayard will take me to will not necessarily take me in. Even if I am a member of the Royal Family, I have no real power or authority. Protecting me simply is not worth the risk."
The princess's wavering gaze seemed to be saying she did not believe what she was saying.
But then why was she lying to the mercenary?
"So that's enough. I have given up hope. Yes, that's right. Even Knight Leader who has helped me out so much in the past has started this coup d'état and come for my life. Surely, you are the same. If the situation compelled you, you would betray me as well, wouldn't you? Then that's enough. I do not trust you. I just do not trust you."
Only Villian's words continued on.
Only her voice continued on as she carefully suppressed her feelings so as not to have her words fall apart.
"I will most likely die resenting this country and this world. There is no more reason for you to fight. No matter how much effort you put into wielding a sword for someone who does not trust you, isn't it all for naught?"
Basically, Third Princess Villian was telling him to abandon her.
No matter how strong the mercenary was, he was still only a single person. If he truly clashed with Second Princess Carissa's forces that controlled the entire United Kingdom, William Orwell would clearly not fare well.
So she was telling him to abandon her.
Villian was ordering him to give up his civility and leave.
"..."
William placed Ascalon on the ground next to him.
Now that both of his hands were free he moved them.
"Hyah!?" shouted Third Princess Villian.
The mercenary put his hands under the princess's arms and lifted her up like a small child.
"U-umm... er..."
Ignoring Villian's surprise at the sudden action, William placed the princess on Bayard's saddle. He then lightly stroked the metal horse on its neck. That must have been some kind of signal because it rose onto its legs that had been folded up underneath it.
Letting go of Villian now that she was looking down at him, William Orwell placed the reins in her hands and spoke.
"Do not worry."
He did not smile.
The mercenary did not know how to calm others. For that very reason, he expressed himself with his actions.
"Even if you do not trust me, my reason for fighting for you remains unshaken."
"Wait-..."
Before Villian could respond, William Orwell lightly tapped on Bayard with the back of his hand.
As if in response, the metal horse began to move.
Third Princess Villian was thrown back and she instinctually grabbed the reigns more tightly. Bayard was moving on autopilot and she did not immediately know how to cancel that mode. She steadily moved further and further away.
"You fool..."
Without jumping off, Villian used her small hands to grip the reins as if attempting to crush them.
She had uttered those words in order to bring that mercenary away from his place of death, but they had only resulted in isolating him even further. She gritted her teeth.
"That isn't what I wanted to hear you say! You foooooollll!!"
Part 3
William Orwell stared deep into the darkness until Bayard had completely disappeared from view.
His shoulders finally relaxed and he picked Ascalon up from the ground where it lay.
Sensing a presence, he turned around slowly.
"So the third princess is over there." The familiar voice belonged to his old friend, the leader of the knights."But why are you here standing in my way? Acqua of the Back, a member of God's Right Seat of the Roman Catholic Church, should have no reason to risk his life for a princess of this country."
The thug of a former mercenary responded with actions instead of words.
He horizontally swung the giant mass of iron that was 3. 5 meters long and weighed more than 200 kilograms.
The sound of the air being sliced could be heard.
Immediately afterwards, a flash exploded out.
Not many people would have been able to tell that he had flipped the giant sword upside down and used the thick, sharp spike near the base of the back to strike a large nearby rock.
The nearby mountain surface broke to pieces as if it had exploded. A large amount of earth and sand flowed horizontally completely sealing the narrow mountain path behind William. That wall both cut off pursuit of Third Princess Villian and prevented William himself from escaping.
The knights in the area looked shocked and raised their guard, but William's old friend, the head of the knights, silently nodded.
"I see. So no matter who you are or what group you belong to, what you must do does not change. That certainly does sound like how you would think."
"..."
William held Ascalon out horizontally in a single hand as his gaze raced around the area.
With the mercenary in the center, a circle of silver armored knights spread out in a half circle with a radius of 30 meters. Swords, spears, axes, bows, staffs, and other weapons glinted in the moonlight.
There were just under 40 of them.
Looking at Knight Leader standing in the center of them, William moved his lips slightly.
"... It seems more people are going to have to die."
Hostility swelled up from the surrounding knights at those words, but Knight Leader alone nodded frankly.
"Even though our strength has been augmented with Curtana's power to a certain extent, not many of us have reached your level."
As he spoke, Knight Leader pointed his thumb at his own chest and spoke two simple words.
"We duel."
"This is a true battlefield. I have no interest in the etiquette of refined nobility. If you are serious about this, come at me all at once. If you would rather not die in vain, leave now."
"You need not worry."
Knight Leader lightly shook his arm.
At some point, a longsword with a 3 cm wide blade had appeared in his hand. It was a sword with an 80 cm long blade that was optimal for knights to use on horseback. However, its silver surface was covered in something rough and dark-red.
"I mean a duel in the old sense: a fight to the death."
The surface of Knight Leader's dark-red longsword started to bubble.
The bubbling was not a mere chemical reaction caused by some chemical. Some of the bubbles were even about the size of a basketball. The tens and even hundreds of those large bubbles that were clearly wider than the sword itself appeared and altogether destroyed its silhouette.
The sword took on a new form.
It was now a gigantic sword over 3 meters long just like William's Ascalon.
"So that is Hrunting."
Hrunting was a magical sword from an old legend that was said to have been tempered in the blood of slain enemies and to grow stronger and sharper as more powerful enemies were defeated with it.
"... Here lies the 10 years since you left. I am no longer as I was when you knocked me out in Dover, " Knight Leader quietly reported as he held that spiritual item that held the same name as a legendary blade."I will use my 10 years to test just how much you have gained from your 10 years."
That was a sign.
The clash between the mercenary and the knight began as they both wielded weapons made to slay superhuman monsters.
Sound disappeared.
Light flew.
William and Knight Leader charged in straight at each other and Ascalon and Hrunting struck each other. Despite the simplicity of the action, the aftereffects that spread about the area were tremendous.
With a few moments of delay, an explosive wind blew out.
Along with a tremendous roar, a dome-shaped shockwave spread out with the two men at the center. An explosive storm spread out in an area with a radius of 100 meters and blew away the fully equipped knights. Trees were torn to pieces, the mountain surface crumbled, and the paved mountain path shattered as if it had been made of glass.
However, by the time the shockwave had expanded, the two men were nowhere to be seen.
They had leapt up into the night sky.
With a slight delay, the sound of their footsteps resounded through the darkness like gunshots. At almost 10 meters in the air, the giant swords struck twice and then a third time. The sparks looked like flashes of lightning and the knights saw the shockwaves spreading out spherically like fireworks.
Someone gave out a cry.
Someone bent over so as not to take as much damage.
The spiral of shockwaves knocked them back evenly.
"I see."
Knight Leader landed on the very top of a thick tree and looked down at his pathetic subordinates.
That was most likely why William Orwell had let the third princess escape ahead of him. It wasn't because he would have trouble fighting while defending her, and it wasn't because he was heroically planning on protecting the princess to his last breath. He was simply taking measures against foolishly killing the very person he was trying to protect with his own strength.
Knight Leader stared again at his old mercenary friend who was standing atop a different large tree.
At first glance, it might have appeared that the two men were battling in a purely physical battle of clashing swords, but magic was at the essence of their actions. They could not produce such destructive force simply by increasing their physical strength to a ridiculous extent. After passing a certain line, only a path of self-destruction where one's own muscles crushed one's own organs awaited.
At the same time as they were producing such overwhelming destruction with their bodies, they were also predicting what the various negative effects and other side effects of creating the ridiculous strength and speeds were and then using assisting magic to meticulously deal with those effects. Hundreds and even thousands of those negative effects were constantly being created in battle and overlooking even one while the situation changed from instant to instant would lead to death in that high speed fight."Exceeding the limit" was an easy thing to say, but it took all that to actually accomplish it. And even with all that, the limits of a physical body could not be completely wiped away. In some situations, it was possible to come up with an ingenious solution in the construction of ones tactics such as with Kanzaki Kaori's drawn sword technique making the battle quick. Both with Saints and with the power of Curtana, just having a large amount of power did not make one strong. In the end, someone who wished to wield a large amount of power needed the skills and disposition required to control that large amount of power.
William was strong.
Knight Leader was strong.
They did not stand in that position because they had been given some type of power. Because they had always had a large amount of power and skill, they had been able to add a special extra "power" to that and set foot in a territory that normal people could not even imagine.
This all also meant that, if one were to obstruct the magic one's opponent was using to assist in their high-speed battle, one could indirectly defeat them. However, that was not so when it came to those two.
William had his disposition he was born with as a Saint and his spells that had been further polished in God's Right Seat.
Knight Leader had Curtana and the All-English Continent as well as magic that had been optimized in his time as a knight.
The symbols that acted as keys to their magic were not something that could easily be taken from them. The two of them were extremely skilled magic users and they had gained minds that were not easily shaken by overcoming numerous wars. Even if a limb or two were severed, they would not lose control of their magic.
Just by looking at the other's pose, they gained much more information than a mere soldier would have.
It had nothing to do with their old friendship.
During the time that had passed and on the journeys they had gone on, they had constructed spells the other did not know of.
"Heh. It's true that you are quite skilled for a Saint, but it seems you aren't showing off your specialty."
"..."
"With each strike, I can feel your wounds throbbing. Since you aren't using that water of yours and you aren't carrying out that sliding high speed of yours, your defeat in Academy City must truly have had a lasting effect on you."
William did not respond.
He merely brought the giant sword up in front of him slowly.
"Do you really have a reason to go this far to protect the third princess?"
As if in response to William's action, Knight Leader began to move, too.
At the top of a huge tree, he silently and smoothly moved the dark-red Hrunting.
His subordinates were struggling on the ground down below and he saw one holding a bow in his shaking hands, but he did not look back in their direction.
"It's true that the kindness and morality that are at her core are worth mentioning. However, I do not think they are enough to move a nation. Basically, this is an issue of what policy will most effectively move the country. This is a question of whether a policy of military force or one of benevolence will save Britain now, and there is only one answer. It seems Lady Carissa is worried about it, but I seriously doubt that the third princess could wield Curtana Original. Her personality would not allow her to and she also simply does not possess the ability."
"..."
"I am not saying that Curtana is everything, but you cannot deny that it is an effective means of military strength. We of the knights will always choose the option that is best for England. As long as that option is Lady Carissa with Curtana Original, then we will support her with everything we have."
Knight Leader's words suddenly cut off there.
A small laugh had cut him off.
The mercenary's shoulder's moved up and down slightly. However, his expression was not the wild smile Knight Leader knew to appear on his face when faced with a formidable enemy.
His smile was one of amusement.
"You seem to have a lot to say, my friend."
William Orwell rejected all of the words that had entered his ears.
His expression said the words had been so ridiculous they weren't even worth remembering.
"So you've come to the point where you cannot take up a sword and fight without making excuses to yourself and others."
No voice came in response.
With a loud noise, the mercenary and the knight kicked off from the tops of the trees and clashed in midair.
Their legs gave off so much power that the two trees they had been standing on were smashed to pieces.
William and Knight Leader had jumped straight forward from the large trees. They seemed to slide through the air as their display of strength twisted gravity and their bodies and swords relentlessly clashed at the halfway point.
Sparks exploded.
A seemingly never ending stream of shockwaves spread out.
The energy they had used to drive themselves forward was completely lost in the first strike and the mercenary and the knight began to fall directly downward. However, a free fall was no threat to those two. They continued to swing their swords in close quarters.
Their swords bit into each other complexly.
In a midair battle with no footholds, one could not properly use one's own weight to swing one's sword. Instead, William and Knight Leader used the energy gained from stopping their opponent's blows to rotate their body around and return the powerful blow from many different angles. This repeated again and again and again and again.
As they fell while entangled in such a complex manner, they looked somewhat like two gears.
But those gears were like industrial circular saws as their thick blades scraped against each other.
This 360 degree exchange taking advantage of the lack of footholds would not last forever. The ground was approaching and the instant they landed was a huge chance to get the upper hand in that competition.
That instant came soon afterwards.
Their feet made contact with the ground covered in undergrowth.
"!!"
"!!"
A thunderous roar sliced through the air.
William Orwell and Knight Leader's bodies both moved about 50 meters from the center of the explosion. They seemed just like small pebbles blown away in a large explosion.
However, the two of them did not put that distance between themselves intentionally.
The instant they landed, they had come closer and closer and a full-strength strike had sent them sliding along the ground due to the combined force of the two colliding attacks.
The bottom of William's shoes scraped along the ground making a horrible noise.
It was the noise of the undergrowth and even the black soil below being torn up. The route William had passed through was torn up so that it looked like a cleared path.
The battlefield had moved from the place where a large number of knights had collapsed due to the aftereffects of the battle. William's back was almost touching the 100 meter wide slope he himself had created with the landslide that cut off the escape route. Opposite him, Knight Leader adjusted his grip on the dark-red longsword. William could not fall back any farther. This was not due to the thickness or the height of the wall. It was because crossing that wall was the same as surrendering the path that lead to the third princess.
There was something you could tell by looking at William.
He had already started to move his weight forward while holding Ascalon.
He looked just like someone about to start a sprint.
Knight Leader also looked as if he were on the verge of assaulting.
"So you are afraid for the third princess. On the battlefield, we have determined so many people were our enemy and slaughtered them. What good will wielding a sword for this reason do you now!?"
"How light. Those words are much too light for the surface!!"
"Heh. Are you trying to say that you can't stand killing people who have agreed to surrender!? That may be just like you, but that's all it is!!"
An explosive noise sounded.
Knight Leader charged toward William with his dark-red sword in hand and the mercenary responded in kind.
"And even so, you're making an enemy of the military side to protect benevolence. Do you really believe that benevolence has enough value for you to support it this much!?"
Sparks and shockwaves scattered about and spread around while the two men moved at high speed.
Sword struck sword and the men glared at each other at close range.
"I do not need decorative words to speak to others." William's Ascalon pressed on Knight Leader's sword."The reason I fight is expressed with my body and my sword!!"
The mercenary purposefully drew back his sword and then filled the open space by forcefully striking Knight Leader's dark-red sword with the blade. The tremendous shock threw Knight Leader's balance off ever so slightly and William continued with a second attack.
However, the head of the knights was not one to be done in from just that.
He swung his dark-red sword around to receive the blow and moved back instead of opposing the momentum.
A space of 10 meters opened up between them.
(... Most likely, this mercenary is fighting without a single military or political reason in mind. Whether the third princess is actually a princess or not holds no meaning to him. )
Knight Leader guessed at what was going on in his opponent's head and poured more strength into the hand gripping the hilt of his sword.
Flere210. The one who changes the meaning of those tears.
As the magic name he held suggested, the reason he held his weapon was to transform cold tears into warm ones.
(But that's still too superficial. That reason is nowhere near enough to kill me, you failed mercenary. )
"..."
On one side, William had finally stopped moving and adjusted his grip on the hilt of his gigantic sword.
It was the spiritual item Ascalon
It was 3. 5 meters long and weighed over 200 kilograms. The sword had the same effects as the sacred sword that appeared in a story based on a real legend and a magician had calculated out all the necessary values and created that sword that could theoretically slay a 50 foot dragon.
The sharpness of the double sided sword was not uniform. The thickness and angle of each part were adjusted so it could also be used like an axe, like a razor, or like a saw. It also had a can opener-like spike and a wire close to the blade like a coping saw on it which made one wonder if the magician who had made it had been drunk. Scales, flesh, bone, muscle, tendons, fangs, claws, wings, fat, organs, sinew, blood vessels, nerves. It seemed to have truly been designed with the idea of being able to cut through every part of a dragon using that one device.
On the other side, Knight Leader held a dark-red sword in hand.
It was the spiritual item Hrunting.
It was 3. 9 meters long and its weight was unknown, but it probably didn't weigh much more than the longsword used at its base. The spiritual item held the same name as the magical sword used in the legend of Beowulf. Apparently, the sword became tougher and sharper from the blood of slain enemies that blocked ones path, but Knight Leader had most likely had Telesma act as the blood so that the a large amount could be compressed into it in order to give it a tremendous amount of destructive power. Already, the ordinary laws of physics did not apply to the steel of the sword. It felt lighter than its original mass should, it was tough enough to not have received a single scratch from the strikes it had received from Ascalon, and – most importantly – it was so sharp that it would kill William instantly were a single strike to hit him.
(... So it works on idolatry theory just like the cross in the Christian church. )
In contrast to his violent actions, William calmly analyzed the situation.
(He's using Curtana and Hrunting, two swords that symbolize the United Kingdom, to further strengthen the ability to control different types of power within the country.... Hmph. I was wondering how his physical body was storing and using a mass of Telesma greater than the power held by the average Saint. To give his life to his sword and his country, he's just as devoted to the theory of the knights as ever. )
At that last thought, William's lips bent slightly.
Not noticing that, Knight Leader spoke.
"In a one-to-one battle, there is no need to hide anything. How about I explain the details?"
"That isn't something I expected to hear from someone who deceived the queen."
"The second princess's plan was effective, but I did not like every aspect of it. Well, I can give my mercenary opponent a short breather to get a grasp of my style."
"I see. But that won't be necessary, " William denied him."I know the trick behind it, but you are not an enemy who will be defeated just from that."
"That was fast, " praised Knight Leader."But it's too bad. Just once, I wish I could have fought you at your peak."
An odd noise split through the darkness of the night.
Knight Leader did not move a step from where he stood.
He merely casually swung Hrunting.
However, the distance meant nothing.
William had immediately dodged to the side upon hearing the sound, but he did not make it in time.
A wound was gouged into his left shoulder and even into his collarbone.
(... That wasn't Hrunting... !?)
That had clearly been a different type of attack than before.
Before blood could come spurting out, William had already adjusted his grip on Ascalon in his right hand.
"Did you know that the magic sword Hrunting in Beowulf is mysteriously never used in the battles pivotal to Beowulf's life?"
There was no noise.
Knight Leader charged towards William faster than the speed of sound.
He swung Hrunting to the side and William received the blade on Ascalon while only holding the sword in one hand. Despite that, the sound of something slicing through the air reached William's ears. In response to a strange chill, he swung his head to the side as hard as he could and a light wound appeared on his cheek.
"In Beowulf's battle against Grendel, he used his own strength, in his battle against the water sprite, he uses an old sword he found in the enemy's hideout, and in the final battle of his life against the dragon, he uses yet another sword."
At that point, Knight Leader made another move.
In order to evade, William had slightly lost his balance and Knight Leader pulled Hrunting back from Ascalon.
He then swung the long sword.
William received the blow with Ascalon, but his inability to support his weight due to having lost his balance and his single-handed grip on Ascalon caused his body to become airborne.
With a tremendous sound, William Orwell flew through the air.
"There is a lesson in what I am telling you: you should always prepare multiple trump cards when your fate is in the balance."
As Knight Leader's lips moved, the mercenary's body struck a large tree and the thick trunk broke.
Ignoring the snapping and cracking noises made by the collapsing tree, Knight Leader spoke.
"It seems this is the limit for a failed mercenary."
Blood squirted from William's left shoulder, but he still stood up with Ascalon in his right hand.
Knight Leader's words rang in the mercenary's ears.
"In a one-to-one battle, there is no need to hide anything. How about I explain the details?"
Part 4
Kamijou Touma had snuck aboard a freight train on the Eurostar line heading from London to Folkestone and was lying face down on the roof.
The train was moving very quickly. Kamijou didn't know what the average speed of foreign trains was, but he doubted they normally moved at almost 300 kph. Due to power trouble in London, a slower diesel engine had been used, but the power must have come back up because it suddenly picked up speed.
It was late at night and probably near the time of the last train of the night, so there wouldn't have been many other trains out normally and – more importantly – a coup d'etat had broken out over the entirety of Britain meaning the normal rail schedule wouldn't be kept. The train was only able to move at that ridiculous speed because there were no other trains on the track.
"Mghghghghghhghghgghghhghghgghhgghgh!!"
The skin of Kamijou's face was subtly distorted due to the wind created by the 300 kph speed. The reason the knights inside the train couldn't find that amateur as he shivered in the cold was quite simple. They would never think that someone would be stupid enough to hide there.
That said, Kamijou hadn't gotten up on the roof because he had wanted to. Originally, he had hidden within the freight train. However, it had been too dangerous to stay in one place because he had to prevent the knights from finding him when they irregularly patrolled the train. To do so, he had been sneaking from place to place matching the movements of the knights. Before he knew it, he had been forced up onto the roof.
(Ahh, I've heard about illegal immigrants sneaking from Mexico into America by clinging to the walls or roof of a freight train. I wonder if it was something like this... )
Kamijou recalled a documentary he had seen in his dorm back in Academy City.
But for him, merely reaching his destination was not his goal.
(Index... )
Kamijou subconsciously gritted his teeth.
When the coup d'etat had broken out, Index had been travelling with the second princess who was said to be the one behind the coup d'etat. He had no idea exactly what kind of situation Index was in, but it was clear her situation wasn't one where her safety was guaranteed.
She held the knowledge of 103, 000 grimoires in her head.
It wouldn't be surprising if someone who wanted to increase their battle ability as much as they could tried to misuse that knowledge.
To be completely honest, he knew it wasn't a situation a single amateur should be heading into.
(... But it's not like I have to defeat the enemy leader and all the troops protecting her. )
Kamijou looked down at his right fist.
(I just need to strike at an opening and rescue Index. If that's all I need to do, this is better than heading for the enemy lines with a large group of people. )
Then Kamijou saw something at the very edges of his vision.
Looking over in that direction, he saw the top of a silver helmet at the connection between two of the freight train's cars. And the knight wasn't moving between cars. It looked like he was climbing the ladder.
(A patrol... ? Shit, someone's coming up here!?)
The armored man was at the front of the car, so Kamijou hurriedly headed for the back. With the wind caused by the train's high speed pushing at his back, Kamijou moved back while sliding along the flat roof. He got a chill thinking about the fact that it was all over if he fell down onto the gravel flowing by at high speed as he jumped down to the small space between cars.
The connection between cars on the freight train was not made into a passageway like on public trains. Each car was isolated, so Kamijou had jumped down onto a small space surrounded by a metal handrail.
It looked like he could move to the next car by climbing over the handrail. With another chill heading down his spine at the sight of the rail and gravel moving by much too quickly below, he moved to the next car.
(Dammit. We're moving pretty quickly, so we should reach Folkestone before long, right?)
He cursed in his heart, but it would all be over if he was found whether they were 10 minutes away or 1 minute away. There was nowhere to run within the train, and it would be difficult to deal with a large number of knights gathering in one spot with only a single right hand. He didn't know exactly how many were on the train, but the train was heading down there to transport additional military personnel to the second princess. It seemed likely that there were a hundred or two onboard.
(... Oh, crap. This is way beyond the level of a fight against some delinquents. )
Kamijou used both hands to slide open the train car door and slipped inside.
The cars in the area he was hiding in were truly being used as freight cars because they were loaded with equipment instead of personnel. A large number of swords and spears were casually piled up by category looking something like the bonfires seen in old stories. It was quite a frightening sight. They were not accessories for decorative suits of armor in some mansion. Each and every one of them was a true weapon that was there for the purpose of killing people.
(Even so... )
Kamijou sighed within the dark freight car.
He could not speak very much English. If each letter and word were pronounced distinctly like in an English textbook, he could probably understand some, but when local speakers spoke quickly while running words together or eliminating them to make things easier to say, he couldn't understand a thing.
Even so, he had picked up on the fact that the knights onboard the train seemed almost panicked about something. It seemed some kind of emergency had sprung up. He couldn't pick up on the details behind it, but he felt like they kept saying a certain name again and again.
(William, huh?)
He had a feeling that that was a rather popular Western name and he couldn't think of anyone he knew with that name. He was willing to bet there were a lot of people in England named that. He guessed that the person might be a Necessarius magician and then decided that thinking any more on it wasn't going to help anything.
Then...
"Hey."
Hearing that sudden voice come from the depths of the car, Kamijou thought his heart would stop.
It was a girl's voice.
He quickly turned around in that direction and saw something wriggling behind a pile of silver armor and helmets. It was a human. The girl had her hands restrained behind her back and had restraints on both her ankles.
(Wait, those clothes are... ?)
Kamijou looked puzzlingly at the girl's clothes that were almost like a lacrosse uniform.
(I think I've seen that outfit before... Is it popular in London right now?)
The girl then unconcernedly spoke to Kamijou.
"You don't look like you're with the knights and you don't seem like a young apprentice either. Are you being transported after having been captured, too?"
Her voice sounded irritated, but he didn't understand a word of her quickly spoken English.
She must have picked up on what Kamijou was thinking from his expression.
"Hm? Oh, I see. Sorry, sorry. It seems you're Japanese, so I guess I should speak in your language."
"Y-you can tell I'm Japanese... ?"
"An Asian person who gets a disturbing thin smile on his face when he first meets you is always Japanese."
(... Is that how a Japanese polite smile looks to them?)
Kamijou was feeling a tad dejected, but the girl didn't seem to notice.
"Anyway, I'll ask again: you aren't with the knights, right?"
Kamijou didn't know what the girl's true motives were and he looked back at her face.
She looked about 15 years old and had white skin and blonde hair. Her hands behind her back and her ankles had restraints on them. The restraints were not modern handcuffs. They were something like the wooden board with holes in it that was used to restrain one's head in a guillotine.
When Kamijou didn't respond, the blonde girl frowned in displeasure.
"... Do you not actually know Japanese? Or is my pronunciation that bad?"
"N-no, I understood you. I understood you, but..."
"Oh, I see. My name is Floris. I've taken part in a bit of a fake magic cabal, but... that doesn't really matter now. Just give me some help."
Part 5
William Orwell had a 5 cm deep gash in his left shoulder.
Quite a bit of blood was flowing from the dark red wound. Ignoring his weakened left arm, the mercenary held his gigantic sword in only his right hand.
He was a little less than 10 meters from Knight Leader.
At that distance, each could attack the other in an instant, but Knight Leader did not move a step.
He sliced his dark red sword through empty air as if he were taking the situation lightly.
"!!"
A horizontal cutting attack came from a completely different angle and threatened to behead William.
When William bent over to dodge the attack, a number of flashes glittered in straight lines around him.
Immediately afterwards, Knight Leader moved his longsword like a baton and invisible cutting attacks rushed towards William from all directions. The undergrowth was sliced in straight lines, claw scratch-like cuts ran across thick tree trunks, leaves floating in the night sky were sliced in half one after another.
William either recognized it in the sound of the wind, identified it in some other way, or used some kind of sixth sense to gather all the not yet classified information because he swung his head to the side, jumped back, swung his right arm to receive the attack on Ascalon's thick blade, repelled the attack, and kept out of the range of Knight Leader's deadly attack.
A storm of sparks erupted.
While swinging his large sword at supersonic speeds to protect his back without really turning around, William spoke to his slightly distant enemy.
"I'm sure you didn't really think you could easily kill me just by adding a trick into your attack range."
"... Once again, you catch on quickly. And as usual, you make sure to say nothing more than is necessary to a detestable extent."
Knight Leader's face held a bitter expression as he swung his dark red sword around at a high speed.
He was using a pattern.
In the stories of Norse, Celtic, Charlemagnic, and Germanic warriors and knights, many legendary weapons were spoken of, but a certain pattern existed in all those weapons.
"I mastered the many paths of knighthood and thought I would compensate for each one's weakness by unifying them, but it seems the more complicated the combination gets, you have to simplify it down to a single strike. I suppose it is similar to the demise of a star like the sun. When a star grows too large, it finally explodes and gives birth to a black hole.... It becomes a mere gravitational field. It becomes something that is theoretically simple but still produces a great power."
It was a single strike born from combining all sorts of spells.
As such, magically interfering with it or cancelling it out was incredibly difficult. To find the solution, one had to head down every one of the paths Knight Leader had taken.
"However, this is not the kind of complete demise that turns the star into a black hole. There are many ways for a star to meet its demise. If the star's mass is not at a certain level, it can apparently turn into other things such as a neutron star or an interstellar cloud. It seems my strike gained the characteristic of the sword due to this imperfection."
Knight Leader's slim fingertips tightly held his dark-red sword.
"Theoretically, this level of characteristic can be divided into a few categories instead of being lumped together in a single category. Simply put, there is the Slicing Power that can cut through anything, the Weapon Weight that creates tremendous destructive force, the Enduring Solidity that cannot be destroyed, and the Movement Speed that makes no one able to catch up to me. There is also Special Use, a rare pattern necessary to slay particular monsters, Precise Accuracy that automatically has me move toward the vital points, and the pattern I just used against you."
"... The Attack Range, you mean?"
He had reanalyzed the laws behind the Norse Gungnir and Mjölnir, the Celtic Fragarach and Brionac, and other weapons, combined them, and then condensed them. His evolution had constructed completely new spells much like a black hole being created from the death of a star that grew too large.
And the similar legends from around the world other than the European ones that Knight Leader loved and so put into his spell could also be added into the birth of this black hole.
"I realized something when I reanalyzed all the spiritual items and weapons from various cultures and legends in order to create this Attack Range. I realized that all kinds of humans wish to win by unilaterally pouring powerful attacks on their enemy from a position their enemy's attacks cannot reach. I do not like giving affirmation to that boring society of guns, but I cannot deny that it is quite effective."
(And the actual materials he used to make this a reality are... )
"Heh!!"
William used Ascalon to repel a "long range" strike approaching his temple from the side. A blade that looked like dark red rust only a few millimeters long struck the thin wire held on like a coping saw creating sparks and then pierced into a nearby tree trunk.
"It is a fragment of the sword." Knight Leader easily revealed the trick that he should have kept hidden and continued swinging around his sword."The fragments of some excellent weapons and spiritual items still display the power of the original. For instance, the sword used by King Charlemagne had the fragment of a sacred spear inside it."
"So someone who is about to fight against France is using the legend of one of its kings?"
"That was a surprisingly pointless comment coming from you."
Knight Leader grinned.
Guided by his sword, a few dozen blades of rust targeted William.
"I will use anything I can. If you want to go down that path, even the name 'Curtana' comes from a French word. I believe it means 'short sword' due to its broken off tip."
Suddenly, Knight Leader stopped moving his hand.
William looked on suspiciously.
"Don't get that look on your face." Knight Leader readjusted his grip on Hrunting."I told you I did not like giving affirmation to that boring society of guns. A proud knight has sworn to crush his enemy while allowing the enemy to use all his strength."
"Are you planning on turning your sword on even powerless servants to boast of that pride?"
William Orwell clicked his tongue slightly.
A red flash of light shot from Ascalon as he held it on his right hand.
No. The light was not just one color. From each angle of the blade, the shine changed just like with the surface of a CD.
Strictly speaking, even that wasn't accurate.
The 3. 5 meter long sword did not have just one blade. Its thickness and angles changed and it had a portion like an axe, a portion like a razor, and a portion like a saw. It also had a can opener-like spike and a wire close to the blade like a coping saw.
Ascalon's shine originated in those different functions.
The color changed depending on how and where the different methods of attack would be used. The axe-like blade was red, the razor-like blade was blue, the can opener-like spike was green, and the coping saw-like wire was yellow. Like that, magical power was being supplied and converging on each of the sections of the spiritual item. The real time regulation of what would provide the greatest destruction decided on the color of the light that split between the routes of each blade.
"I had hoped I wouldn't have to use this."
"That isn't like you. Were you holding back against one who the dragon symbolizes?"
Knight Leader smiled and gripped Hrunting's hilt.
In the values of the Christian Church, the dragon was the symbol of more than one thing.
For example, it represented pagans and foreign invading forces.
It also represented a fallen angel stained with evil.
Part 6
Inside the freight train, Kamijou Touma faced a girl with her hands and feet restrained.
It seemed her name was Floris.
Someone familiar with the full story of the recent events might immediately have the organization name "New Light" come to mind. Kamijou did not know the names of the New Light members other than Lessar who had been terribly injured before his eyes nor did he know what they looked like.
"C'mon, quit standing there with that blank look on your face and help me already."
"Help you... ? How?"
"Surely you can figure that out just by looking at me. Help me take these off."
She thrust forward the wooden restraint binding her ankles.
A look of displeasure came over Kamijou's face.
"... What the hell did you do to get those things put on you?"
"Well, I don't really think I did anything wrong."
Floris laughed.
She then whispered something quickly in English.
"(... I was kinda glad the knights had rescued me from the Necessarius sanctuary, but then they threw me on this freight train without removing the restraints. They really must have been planning on silencing us from the beginning. Dammit Bayloupe, this is what happens when you trust public servants like the knights. I'm not willing to bravely have my life come to an end for just one mission like Lessar. )"
"Hah?"
"Oh, nothing. Anyway, you're in a similar situation, right? Like you got on the knight's bad side and were taken in or something."
"I snuck onto the train to get to Folkestone."
That response had a lot of meaning behind it, but Floris did not respond to it.
She had only needed to know that he wasn't with the knights.
"Anyway, just help me get these off. Due to the effects of the spiritual item, I can't leave this 2 meter square area. That means... well... I can't grab the key on the wall over there."
"Ahn? Is that all you need?"
Kamijou started to reach for the ring of keys on the wall, but then he froze.
A puzzled expression appeared on Floris's face.
"What is it?"
"Well, my right hand is known as Imagine Breaker. To put it simply, if the key you need is magical, it'll be destroyed the second I touch it. If that happened, there would be no way of removing your restraints."
After his own explanation, Kamijou suddenly looked up.
"Huh? But then we don't have to deal with the key at all. I can just destroy the magical restraints directly with my right hand."
"Hah? Eh? Wait, wait, wait!! I don't know what you're planning to do, but-.... !?"
As Floris complained, Kamijou grabbed the restraint around her ankles.
With a cracking noise, the restraint fell to pieces.
"See? I should've just done this from the beginning."
"H-huh..."
Kamijou circled behind Floris and destroyed the restraint binding her arms.
"There we go. Ha ha. You'd better be really damn thankful, Floris-kun."
"Gwaah!? Wait, destroying the restraints that crudely will-... !!"
An alarm began to sound within the train car.
The two of them could sense presences gathering at the front and back of the car. Then they heard physical armor-sounding footsteps clanking.
Floris glared at Kamijou with deathly bloodshot eyes.
"Wh-what are we going to do!? We're going to be at a complete dead end 10 minutes after this begins!!"
"N-no, it's too soon to give up!!" Kamijou replied as he headed for the iron door.
In addition to the doors at the front and back of the car, it also had a large sliding door on the side wall for loading. Kamijou removed the latch and used both hands to open the sliding door slightly.
A blast of wind roared into the car.
"Where are we?"
"Aren't we almost at Folkestone?" replied Floris.
Hearing that, Kamijou looked back out the door and in the direction the train was headed. A green plain spread out before his eyes. However, one glance at the ground quickly flowing along down below made it clear what would happen if they carelessly jumped out.
"Looks like we have to jump, " he said.
"Are you an idiot? You can commit suicide if you want, but I won't!!"
"No, not that. We're approaching a river! That's the only place we can escape at!!"
"Eh? No way. Diving down into a cushion of water from a great height and miraculously surviving is just something from Hollywood. It isn't going to work in reali-..."
"Let's go. It won't be as scary if we hold hands!!"
"E-eh? Wait, this is really gonna kill uuuuuuuusssssssssssss!!"
The freight train was crossing an old stone bridge.
Kamijou had grabbed Floris's arm while she chattered on and jumped from the open sliding door.
They were roughly 10 meters from the water's surface.
Perhaps out of fear, Floris was clinging to Kamijou's body and she looked like she was about to burst a blood vessel as she shouted.
"We're done for!!"
"No, we'll be fine. The water will act as a cushion and-... !!"
"That river isn't even a meter deeeeeeeeep!!"
"............................................................. !!"
Kamijou's eyes turned to dots.
He looked back up and saw a number of knights on the freight train holding longbows. However, their shoulders were relaxed and they looked completely dumbfounded. It was as if they were saying, "My duty says I should shoot them, but that would definitely be a waste of tax money."
"Ahhh, dammit!!" Floris yelled in midair and her shoulders suddenly started to glow.
Something made of metal parts was attached there and a few thin metal rods like the frame of an umbrella jutted out on both sides seeming to ignore the law of conservation of mass.
"Grab on!! I'm going to try to somehow offset our speed with my wings!!"
A film of light sprouted out connecting the umbrella frame-like rods. Seeing the entire thing spread out like bat wings, Kamijou's cheek twitched slightly.
(Umm, didn't she hear me explain my right hand? If she's trying to lower our speed by using magic, I sense some real misfortune headed my way. )
Part 7
Various colors of light glowed from Ascalon.
Knight Leader's long sword was dyed in the single dark-red color that resembled both blood and rust.
The distance between the two swords was less than 10 meters.
"Let's go, " said William Orwell quietly.
"Come, " Knight Leader quietly responded.
With a tremendous roar, Knight Leader's long distance strikes attacked William from all directions.
It was the Attack Range type of evolved strike that was constructed from analyzing the spells and spiritual items appearing in the legends of knights from various cultures, putting them together, and condensing them much like a star that grew too large and gave birth to a black hole. It was Knight Leader's enveloping attack that thoroughly investigated every type of attack that unilaterally attacked the enemy from a seemingly impossible range combined with fired small rust-like sword fragments.
William used only his right hand to swing up his large 3. 5 meter sword and then reversed his wrist in order to put the back of the sword in front of him.
The blade glowed crimson.
Crimson indicated the axe.
The mercenary's attack was fired in a straight line directly down and was not intended to repel the attacks flying in from all directions.
He was aiming for the ground.
With a loud impact, the solid earth below shook.
An area with a radius of 20 meters with William in the center sank deep down. This included where Knight Leader stood and the innumerable strikes he had fired sliced through the air above the head of the mercenary who had sunk down about 3 meters.
"Wha-... ?"
Either because his sure-fire attack had missed or because his footing was unstable, Knight Leader's movements dulled slightly.
It only lasted an instant.
However, William Orwell swung up the blade that was pointing straight down and used his bent over posture to its fullest by explosively stretching his tightened muscles in a charge towards Knight Leader.
The explosive sound of his footsteps came after a slight delay.
The already slipping ground was utterly destroyed.
Ascalon's glow turned from red to blue. William reversed the double-edged sword with his wrist again in order to bring the thin and sharp razor-like section to the front. He then swung the sword horizontally right in front of Knight Leader so as to slice him in two.
It was as if he were nonverbally saying that Attack Range was no problem for him and that a trick like that would not determine the victor.
However...
"I do not recall saying that Attack Range is the only pattern I can use, you failed mercenary."
There was no sound.
Knight Leader merely disappeared from before William's eyes.
Even with his level of kinetic vision, he had been unable to keep up with the enemy's movements.
"Movement Speed, " said a voice behind him.
Feeling approaching wind pressure, William stabbed his large sword back below his arm without turning around.
The sound of steel clashing with steel rang out.
Perhaps because of the posture he had attacked from, William felt a dull pain run through his wrist.
Ignoring it, the mercenary spun his entire body around.
The blade's color changed from blue to green. He turned his wrist to turn the back of Ascalon's blade to the front. He attacked Knight Leader who had gotten behind him with the can opener-like spike.
"Weapon Weight."
He was met with an unexpected shock.
He was assaulted with a recoil even greater than when he had received the attack from an unstable position before. William's body was thrown backwards like he had tried to stab a shovel into a boulder as hard as he could.
The mercenary's feet slid along the black soil.
A mere 3 cm was all it took to prepare.
In that time, Knight Leader swung his dark red sword up above his head.
"Slicing Power."
"!?"
With an eerie sound, William gave up on trying to block the attack.
He immediately jumped back to get some distance between them.
He avoided Knight Leaders' blade by a few millimeters and the blade made contact with the black soil.
The solid earth was split open.
William had to hurriedly jump to the side so as not to be swallowed up by the rift.
And then...
"Attack Range."
An unpleasant noise exploded out.
William Orwell's side was lightly cut.
By creating that phenomenon, Knight Leader had proven what he had said.
He could use more than just Attack Range.
He also had Slicing Power that could cut through anything, Weapon Weight that created tremendous destructive force, and Movement Speed that made it so no one was able to catch up to him. Although they hadn't been seen yet, he most likely also had Enduring Solidity that made the sword unable to be destroyed, Special Use that was necessary to slay particular monsters, and Precise Accuracy that automatically had him move toward the enemy's vital points.
By condensing the legendary spiritual items and spells appearing in the Norse, Celtic, Charlemagnic, Germanic, and other warrior and knight cultures and then condensing them further, he had simplified them down into attack patterns. And by making them his own, he could freely use them as means of attack.
"You are going to die, " quietly reported the man holding the dark red "weapon" as he looked at the blood flowing from William.
What Knight Leader held was no longer Hrunting.
It wasn't even a sword.
"I have seen all you have. As you are now, you cannot overcome my blade."
It was merely a weapon.
It was a tool that should not have been created that annihilated all of its enemies whether they were man or monster.
Its strike was overwhelmingly sharp, overwhelmingly heavy, overwhelmingly fast, overwhelmingly tough, and overwhelmingly long, it held specialization to slice in two even monsters that could not be pierced by swords, and it even led its aim towards the enemy's weak point that would cause the most damage.
Previously, Knight Leader had compared his attack to the explosion of a star.
While everything up to that point had been like a star with insufficient mass that instead became a neutron star or an interstellar cloud, that attack should perhaps be referred to as the ultimate black hole born from a star that grows too large.
Attack Range and Movement Speed did not allow it to be avoided, Slicing Power and Weapon Weight did not allow it to be blocked, and Enduring Solidity did not allow it to be destroyed.
If Knight Leader went all out, he could end the fight in the next strike.
William Orwell would definitely be sliced in two.
Why had he not done so before?
Was it sentiment?
"Will you cast aside your sword and depart from England?" Knight Leader slowly moved the "weapon" that he held in both hands."Or will you become one with the soil of England along with your sword?" The tip of his longsword pointed towards William who stood at a distance."Choose. Which do you desire?"
The result was clear.
William was not unscathed. Due to the wound in his left shoulder, he had lost feeling in one arm, he was losing even more blood due to the cut in his side, and he could not use his full potential due to his defeat in Academy City.
If Knight Leader's ultimate strike was exactly as he described, the mercenary had no way of winning.
As such, it was clear what he had to do.
"... I have one thing to ask you before I choose, " said William with Ascalon in hand.
Knight Leader frowned as the mercenary continued speaking.
"Do you truly think that this country will be saved if you support the second princess and kill the third?" That mercenary was not a talkative person, so there was a reason he felt this was a necessary question."The first princess is intellect, the second princess is the military, and the third princess is benevolence.... Can you assert that the one you chose and the ones you cut away were the correct ones?"
"... It is difficult to say that it was ideal, " said Knight Leader with a sigh.
Even so, the glint in his eyes did not waver.
"However, history has already begun to move. As time cannot be reversed, I must choose one of the camps. And I choose the most beneficial camp."
"I see, " muttered William.
He moved.
| ← Ch. 134 | Ch. 136 → |