The Red Wyrm's Lower Jaw was a ravine with a path that cut
directly through the mountains. The road wasn't as straight as the Holy
Sword Highway, but didn't split or fork, either. It was a territory between
country borders that was claimed by no one. Once we got through it, we'd be
in the Asura Kingdom.
We were in high spirits, sensing the end of our long journey. We were
a bit concerned because we didn't know how much our home had changed,
but we were also starting to feel a sense of accomplishment. You could say
that we let our guard down.
It was along that path that they came, walking steadily from the
opposite direction. They weren't riding horses, they weren't sitting in a
carriage; they were just walking. There was a man with silver hair and golden
eyes who wore no real armor to speak of, only an unassuming white coat
made out of some kind of leather. My impression of him was simply that he
had a dangerous look in his eyes, and that was about it. His irises were small
enough that you could see the whites all around them.
My eyes were more drawn to the other person, a young girl with black
hair who followed behind him. Upon closer inspection, her hair was more of
a dark brown shade, a slightly ashen color. I didn't usually remember people
by their hair color, but it shouldn't have been hard to remember someone
with pure black hair. Except I couldn't recall anyone like that.
There was another reason this girl caught my eye. She had a mask
pulled over her face. It was pure white with nothing drawn on it, a mask with
absolutely no decoration. There was nothing particularly memorable about it,
and yet if you saw it once, you'd never forget it. If I were to liken it to
anything, it would be one of the peel-off face masks from the world of my
last life. Since it stood out so horribly, I doubted it was a fashion statement. Since I was so captivated by this girl's appearance—well, not that
captivated—I didn't notice Ruijerd sitting in the driver's seat, his face white
as a sheet. Eris was the same way. With each step the man took, bringing him
closer, her face hardened and her grip on the hilt of her sword grew so tight
that her hands turned white.
When the man noticed us, he gave a curious tilt of the head.
"Hm…? You…could you be a Superd?"
Doubt crept in when I saw his eyes, with their small irises, narrow.
Ruijerd had shaved off all his hair and the jewel in his forehead was hidden.
How did the man know? Did Ruijerd exude some kind of smell that gave him
away? As I considered the possibility, I turned to look at Ruijerd.
"Is he an acquain…tance…?" My question was cut short by the look
on Ruijerd's face. His white skin was even paler than usual, beaded with cold
sweat. His hand was trembling as he gripped his spear. That expression…I
knew what that was.
Fear.
"Rudeus, whatever you do, don't move. Eris, you either." There was a
tremor in Ruijerd's voice.
I still had no idea what was going on, but I nodded wordlessly. Eris'
face flushed bright red and she looked like she might leap forward at any
moment. Her arms and legs were trembling. Had the two of them met this
man at some point, when I wasn't aware of it?
"Hm? That voice… You must be Ruijerd Superdia? I didn't recognize
you at first without your hair. What are you doing here?"
The man casually approached us. Ruijerd readied the spear in his hand.
On a whim, I decided to use my demon eye.
"The man's body splinters into multiple images."
There were so many of them I couldn't see the exact outline of his
body. What the heck was going on?
"Hm? The one with the red hair… Eris Boreas Greyrat, huh? And the
other…who are you? Not a face I know… Oh, well. I see what's going on,
Ruijerd Superdia. You love children, so these two must be ones who were teleported to the Demon Continent during the incident. You brought them all
the way here." He had an all-knowing look on his face as he nodded.
Eris was shocked and shouted back, "H-how do you know my name?!"
I felt even more confused by her words. So this was the first time
they'd met? I mean, this was Eris we were talking about, so it wouldn't have
been surprising if she'd simply forgotten. But this man wasn't exactly
forgettable, with his silver hair and the way the whites of his eyes showed
around his irises. Then there was the matter of the abnormal reaction that he
evoked in both Eris and Ruijerd. If she'd met him before, there was no way
she would have forgotten.
"Who the hell are you?! And why do you know my name?!" Ruijerd
thrust his spear out toward the man. Apparently, he didn't know this guy,
either. What the heck was going on…?
Ruijerd was famous. He wasn't well-known on the Central Continent,
but if you went to the Demon Continent, there were many who knew his
name and his face. I wasn't so sure about Eris, but if you'd heard her
described as a young red-haired swordswoman, then you could make a rough
guess as to who she was.
There was more to this strangeness. There was the man's attitude…or
rather, the difference between that and their reactions. He came across as
friendly. His voice was flat, but—and I didn't know where it stemmed from
—there was a quality to it that made him sound happy, like he'd been
reunited with old friends.
Ruijerd's behavior was the complete opposite, acting as if he might
attack at any moment. Except he hadn't yet. He was treating this man as an
enemy, but he hadn't launched an attack. Even Eris, who was always the first
one to attack, hadn't moved. And it wasn't just because Ruijerd had told her
not to.
"This is a curious place to meet you…but you seem well. That's good."
The man stared at Ruijerd, who still had his spear pointed at him. Then he
laughed in a self-deprecating way and took a step back.
Seeing that, the girl with the mask muttered, "Are you sure?"
"It's unavoidable at this point."
It was a conversation I couldn't understand, lacking any context of
what they were talking about. And once it was over…
"I'll stay out of your way." The man walked slowly over to the side.
The black-haired woman followed him.
Ruijerd kept his eyes trained on the man. And of course, so did Eris.
"You'll know who I am…eventually," the man said, his words
measured and meaningful.
Intuitively I felt that this man knew something. I felt a vibe from this
man that was the same as the Man-God's. I had to get him to tell me what it
was.
"Please, wait!" Before I realized it, I'd called the man to a halt.
He looked back, face etched with surprise. Ruijerd and Eris also looked
at me with shock on their faces.
"What is it? What do you want?"
"Ah, greetings. My name is Rudeus Greyrat."
"Never heard of you."
Well, it was our first time meeting, after all.
"Wait, Greyrat, is it? What are your parents' names?"
"Before we get to that, uh, what's your name?" I asked.
"Hm… All right, I'll tell you. I'm Orsted."
Orsted? Not a name I was familiar with. The only character with a
similar name that I knew of was the one who died and kept spouting
apologies from the other side. I glanced at Ruijerd and realized he didn't
seem to recognize the name, either. "Are the two of you acquainted?"
"No," Orsted replied. "Not yet."
"Not yet? What does that mean?"
"You don't need to know. Now, who are your parents?" He coldly
brushed me off.
He wouldn't even answer my questions, and yet he expected me to
answer his? Well, whatever. I wasn't going to get upset over something that minor. "Paul Greyrat," I said finally.
"…Hm? Paul shouldn't have a son. He should have two daughters."
Well that was rude. I was right here, looking just like my father. The
idiot son who went all the way to the Demon Continent to make money.
"…Hm." As if he'd realized something, Orsted tilted his head. Slowly
he approached me.
"Don't come any closer!" Ruijerd threatened him.
"Yes, I know." He stopped, maintaining his distance, but stared right at
my face. I matched his gaze. "You don't turn your eyes away, huh?"
"I'd like to turn them away as soon as possible, since the look in yours
is so terrifying," I said.
"Hm, so that means you don't feel any fear?" His brows furrowed.
"Hmm. That's strange. I have no memory of meeting you."
Nor did I. This was our first meeting. I didn't know the name Orsted,
nor did I recognize his face.
"So, what do you want?" he asked.
"Um, well, I just thought maybe you knew something about the
Displacement Incident."
"I don't." He didn't shake his head, but simply rejected the possibility
outright.
Huh. Something about his attitude toward me was kind of weird. As if
he were being cautious around me. As if he were being more distant with me
than he'd been with either Ruijerd or Eris. Well, anyone would dislike being
rudely stopped by someone only to be needled about this and that. Even if he
did know something, I probably wasn't going to get him to tell me about it.
"All right then, I'm sorry to have stopped—"
It was exactly then, right as I was bowing my head in apology, that he
said it. "You. Are you perhaps familiar with the name 'Man-God'?"
Finally, he'd said a word that I could understand.
Part of the problem was that I'd let my guard down, thinking that our
conversation was already over. Another part was that I'd purposefully avoided saying anything about the Man-God to anyone, and now suddenly
someone had spoken the god's name, particularly a person who so thoroughly
confused me. So, naturally, thinking that this was knowledge we both shared
that would continue the conversation, I reacted to it without thinking.
I replied ever so casually, "I do. He's appeared in my dream—"
Suddenly, my vision changed.
"Orsted's hand is going to spear right through my chest."
It was so fast, as if he were teleporting. I couldn't avoid it. A second
was just far too short.
"Rudeus!"
The vision suddenly disappeared and Ruijerd wedged himself in front
of me. He blocked Orsted's attack and I was sent reeling backward. Orsted
peered over Ruijerd's shoulder, glaring at me. His eyes were cold.
"So that's it. You're one of the Man-God's apostles."
In the same instant that I found myself thinking Orsted was making a
false charge, Ruijerd was shouting at me, "Rudeus! Run!"
"You're in the way, Ruijerd Superdia!"
Ruijerd swung his spear.
I couldn't move. It wasn't that I didn't try to run, just that I didn't even
have a chance to try. Ruijerd was taken out in a matter of seconds. All I could
do was watch as Orsted easily batted him away, much like a human swatting
a fly.
Ruijerd was strong. At least, he was supposed to be. Even Eris hadn't
managed to defeat him once during our entire trip. He had five hundred years
of experience in battle, which should have made him practically invincible.
He should've been stronger than a King-tier swordsman. And yet, I could tell
with my demon eye that he'd lost. Through the eye, I watched the whole
thing from beginning to end. Time-wise, it probably only lasted all of ten
seconds.
There was no way that Orsted was faster than Ruijerd. It was just that
with every move Ruijerd made, he was at a slight disadvantage. In the span
of a second, this was repeated three to four times. Each time he moved, he dug his grave deeper. Bit by bit, he was driven into a corner. Each time he
tried to attack, his balance suffered slightly, and each attack he tried to launch
was stalled.
A difference in ability—that's the only way I could describe it.
Orsted's skills just overwhelmingly surpassed Ruijerd's. Enough that I could
see it clearly with my eye.
Orsted was clearly drawing Ruijerd into a trap. He was moving as little
as possible and yet at the fastest speed possible, rendering Ruijerd powerless.
If a perfect combat strategy were made a reality, this was probably what it
would look like. Orsted picked the perfect intervals to move in, putting
himself at just the right distance for Ruijerd's spear to effectively reach him.
It was as if Orsted were mocking Ruijerd, purposefully putting himself in a
position to invite powerful consecutive attacks, only to throw him off
balance, cause him to stagger, creating openings in his defense, and forcing
Ruijerd to guard himself against heavy counterattacks.
There was nothing Ruijerd could do about this. There were no methods
left to him. He took a fist to his solar plexus, then a second that grazed the tip
of his chin. The third, which robbed him of his consciousness, was a fist that
bore right down on his temple. Ruijerd rolled twice across the ground before
he stopped moving entirely. Orsted could probably have killed Ruijerd on the
third punch if he'd wanted to, but he didn't. Even with someone as
remarkable as Ruijerd as his opponent, Orsted was able to hold back.
"Now then."
"Hyaaaah!"
The one screaming wasn't me. It was Eris. She leaped in front of me
and whipped her blade toward Orsted, fast as an arc of light.
"Secret Technique: Flow." Orsted wasted no time against Eris. All he
did was gently stop her sword with the palm of his hand. At least, that was
how it appeared to me. And yet, that was enough to send her spinning
through the air. She flew as though she'd been hit with a Saint's ultimate
technique.
Eris had been outside his line of sight. As soon as Ruijerd was done in,
she launched her attack from his blind spot. It was an incredibly deft
offensive, as far as I could tell—she wasted no time thinking of defense, but jumped in to attack with everything she had. In return, Orsted had used only
one technique of his own to disable her.
Wait. I'd seen something similar before. Paul had shown me something
like that. It was a Water God Style technique, though Orsted's execution was
even more polished than Paul's had been.
"Aaah…!"
Eris crashed into a cliff face. Rocks crumbled from the impact, and she
landed with a thud. She was incredibly tough, so I didn't think she was dead,
but she might have broken a bone.
"Eris Boreas Greyrat, you've honed your skills quite well. I believe
you have potential, but…you're still unpolished."
"Ugh… uurgh…" Eris let out a groan and tried to get back up.
Normally, I'd heal her immediately at this point. However, I didn't
have the opportunity to try. After all, Orsted's eyes were boring into me.
My companions were both defeated in mere moments. The whole time,
I'd kept my demon eye activated, but all I could see, one second into the
future, was despair. I saw that no matter what I did, he would do me in. I
watched as my future self, just one second from now, had his vital points
destroyed. My head, my throat, my heart, my lungs… I watched as each one
of those were crushed, and at the same time, I had a vision of him just
standing there, unmoving. I didn't understand what was going on. If this
vision was true, then in a second from now, there would be five of him.
I couldn't move. I knew that no matter what I did, it was futile. That
whole second passed with me unable to do anything. He slid forward, as if
defying the laws of physics, and in an instant he was right before me. It was
so sudden, like animation without enough frames.
In ths instant after he appeared before me, his attack was already over.
I'd seen movements like this in some video game a long time ago. It was a
post-apocalyptic game where every character had an endless combo or a Fatal
KO.
Six of my ribs were fractured simultaneously. There was an impact, but
it was different from the kind that sent you flying. In the same instant, I felt
the pressure of another attack hit me from behind. The damage accumulated inside my body. My lungs were crushed.
"Uughhh!" In a split-second, blood gushed up through my throat and I
was vomiting red.
"It's best to collapse a magician's lungs," he said nonchalantly as I
sank to my knees.
I experienced an aha! moment of acceptance somewhere within me as
I watched my lifeblood pool on the ground below. Crushing a magician's
lungs was the best course of action because then they couldn't chant a spell.
This meant I'd lost my ability to use healing magic. And of course, with my
lungs destroyed, I couldn't stay alive.
"When you die, be sure to deliver a message to the Man-God for me.
Tell him that the Dragon God Orsted will be the one to kill him." The Dragon
God. Number two on the list of the Seven Great Powers.
Orsted gave me a glance as I curled up on the ground, hands at my
chest, and turned on his heel to leave. I realized he'd let his guard down.
Since I'd already received a fatal wound, I hadn't just been defeated—I was
at death's door. I didn't know why, even in that state, I was still thinking
about trying to fight back. Perhaps it was because, on the edge of my vision, I
could see Eris trying to stand up. More likely, it was because I thought that
now that this man was sure I was going to die, he was going to finish off the
other two as well.
Regardless, I launched a stone cannon at him. Why didn't I use more
powerful magic? After all, I had Advanced-tier magic at my disposal if I
wanted to use it. Even later, I never figured out the answer. In that moment, I
was most likely just using the magic I was most familiar with.
I launched the hardest rock I could, at the fastest speed with the
quickest spin. That stone cannon was so powerful, even I was surprised. The
rock burned red-hot as it flew the short distance from me to him.
"Orsted is going to look back and smash my stone cannon with his
fist."
And so he did. With the sound of clinking metal, it crumbled and fell to
the ground in pieces.
Orsted look at his fist. "That was a stone cannon just now, wasn't it?
That had some incredible power to it. For you to be able to injure me with
such magic is impressive." The skin of his fist was peeled slightly. I'd barely
grazed him.
It was no good. I couldn't damage him with my stone cannon.
"I was sure I crushed your lungs, so you must be using voiceless
magic? Is that a power you gained from the Man-God? What else did he give
you?" Orsted stared at me. He could have just finished me off, but instead, he
was watching me as if I were a grasshopper whose legs had been plucked off.
"Ugh…!" I conjured wind magic to force air into my lungs. I choked
violently. I knew there was no point to it, but I forced the air in anyway,
filling my lungs, before I stopped breathing.
"An amusing use of magic. What purpose does that have right now?
Why not use voiceless magic to heal your lungs?" Orsted put his hand to his
chin, watching me as if he enjoyed seeing me suffer.
Even as my consciousness dimmed, I formed a ball of fire in my right
hand. With fire magic, the more mana you poured in, the stronger the heat
and the bigger it got. If my stone cannon's speed and hardness didn't work,
then I would try heat and explosive power.
"That's enough. Disturb Magic!"
My feeble thoughts of resistance were easily blown away. The moment
Orsted aimed his right hand at me, the mana that was beginning to take shape
at the tip of mine was swept away. No matter how much I tried to channel
mana into my hand, it took no form and dissipated. Even though I was half-
conscious, I understood. There was interference with the mana in my hand
that disrupted it and rendered my magic ineffective.
He had sealed my right hand, but I still had my left. So I lifted it and
conjured magic between Orsted and myself, unleashing a shockwave. An
explosive boom resounded as Orsted flew backward. I was also thrown away
from the blast.
"Hmph…you nullified my Disturb Magic? No, that's not it… You're
using multiple schools of magic simultaneously. Quite skilled to be able to do
that voicelessly. Like this, was it?" The man snapped his fingers on his left
hand. When he did, a small, square, fifty-centimeter window formed in the
air. It was a beautiful window, adorned with gorgeous dragon-shaped ornaments. "Hm. More difficult than I expected."
I ignored the window and focused on launching the fiercest fire attack
against him that I could manage. What I pictured in my mind was an
enormous flame. A mushroom cloud. A nuclear explosion. I channeled my
magic as simply and straightforwardly as possible, as if powering up for a
punch. I didn't even think about the fact that Eris and Ruijerd might be
caught up in it. I'd already lost the ability to think.
"Open, Front Wyrmgate!" As Orsted spat out the words, the window
opened up.
In the same instant, the mana coalescing in my left hand was
swallowed. The window frame cracked and splintered. An explosion was
simultaneously triggered close to Orsted. It was far less powerful than I'd
expected, and he easily avoided it.
"What incredible mana capacity. A Front Wyrmgate at this size
couldn't contain it. It's almost as if you're on the same level as Laplace…
Well, you are the Man-God's apostle, after all. Why have you still not healed
your lungs? Are you trying to lull me into letting my guard down?"
That was right before my consciousness cut out completely. I didn't
have the ability to discern what was happening anymore.
The man was still observing me. Our eyes met. "Is that it?" In a split
second, he closed in on me. There was nothing left I could do. "You can't do
anything besides magic?"
My magic was sealed, and my legs were frozen, so I couldn't move. I
was helpless in the face of his overwhelming murderous intent. In the edge of
my vision, I could see the window pane dissipating, but there was nothing I
could do.
"Guhugh!" I tried to use the roar I'd learned in the Doldia Village, the
one that didn't resemble theirs in the least. Orsted readied himself, but of
course, all I was able to do was spit out blood to no effect.
"…Just mana? What are you trying to do?"
There was already nothing I could do. My magic was sealed, and
nothing indicated I could beat him with physical attacks. The only thing I
could do now was prostrate myself. But Orsted wouldn't even allow me to do that. "Well, no matter. Die."
"Aagh…!"
His hand speared right through my body at super-speed. Straight
through my heart. An absolutely fatal wound. One my healing magic would
be never be effective on.
"How disappointing, Man-God. Now you're using pawns that can't
even coat themselves in a Battle Aura? Just what are you planning?" His
hand was coated thickly in my blood when he extracted it. I tried to stand, but
my body wouldn't listen. It betrayed me by crumbling to the ground. At the
edge of my vision I could see Eris lifting her head, could see the stunned look
on her face as she gazed over at me. Our eyes met.
"A-aah… R-Rudeu… Rudeus…!"
Ah, this sucks. I don't want to die. I still hadn't fulfilled my promise to
Eris. Just two more years, I just wanted to hold on two more years. If I could
do that, then I could die without reservations.
Let me just gather my mana. It's just one wound. I'll heal it, I told
myself. I couldn't chant the words because there was a hole in my lungs.
Still, I could do it. I just needed to slowly focus the mana. It would heal. It
would heal. I couldn't die yet.
"Waaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Eris let out a wail.
"Was he important to you? I'm sorry, Eris Boreas Greyrat. But one day
you will understand. Let's go, Nanahoshi."
"Y-yes…"
Orsted slowly walked away, the girl following along behind him.
Eris couldn't stand, either from the damage she took, or the fear. Or
maybe the shock. All she could do was scream. She had no sword, so she
used her voice.
"Ruijerd! Ghislaine! Grandfather! Father! Mother! Theresa! Paul! I
don't care who, just someone save him! Rudeus is going to die!"
Crap, my consciousness was fading further. Seriously? This was really
the end?
But I didn't…want to…die…
"Hey, Orsted, there's just one thing that's weighing on me. That boy…
Wouldn't it be better to just let him live?"
Just before my consciousness cut off completely, I felt like I heard
someone say those words.