Chapter 313

Chapter 313

“Kahak!”
Abel coughed up blood as the sword pierced his chest. A dimensional rift swallowed the two men. With a gut-wrenching sensation, the inexorable fall began.
“What the hell—!”
Abel gritted his teeth. The landscape of the battlefield had faded away, and amorphous space surrounded them. The rift they had entered had already receded out of sight.
It was a level of isolation that Albrije had painstakingly constructed. It was enough to trap Navarrozze, and at this rate, he would be trapped here forever.
Abel was in the midst of trying to figure out what to do. Quack! Ronan lunged at him, biting the nape of his neck, and he sagged.
“Ugh?!”
“Boom!”
It was incomprehensible behavior. It was like a trained hunting dog, sinking its fangs deep and not letting go. Abel raised his fist and began punching him in the face.
“What a disgusting thing–what are you doing!”
“Grrrrrrrrrrr!”
“I can’t let go!”
His fists were hard from the giants’ strength. Ronan did not release his grip on the jester’s jaw, even though he could hear the sound of broken bones. Unable to bear it, Abel drew his sword.
“–Shit!”
For now, he needed to escape this space rather than deal with Ronan. Drawing power from the source, he swung his sword beneath his feet. With a clang, the shimmering space ripped apart, revealing a new dimensional rift.
“That one.
Ronan’s eyes widened. A cool breeze was blowing from beyond the rift, a passageway to another dimension.
“Maybe the seal was useless anyway.
It was an incredible force. The two were swallowed up by the crack as they fell. With a bang, the two fell and landed on the white sand.
“Eek!”
“Click!”
The height was so high that the impact was significant. All the fine sand was stained an eerie, stark white. I could hear the waves crashing in the distance.
“Is this—?
Ronan looked around casually and raised an eyebrow. If the end of the world existed, this was what it would look like. They were standing on a shore. Beyond the pure white sand was a blood-red ocean.
There was no sign of life in the crimson water. The cloudless sky was brilliant with star clusters. The celestial bodies, dozens of times brighter than the night sky I was used to looking up at, told me this was a different world.
“That sounds familiar.
Ronan narrowed his eyes. In a way, the impression was similar to that of Nebula Clazier’s headquarters. Just then, Abel, who had regained his senses, roared.
“How long do you think you’re going to stick around!”
Abel reversed the blade and tried to stab Ronan with it. Ronan pulled his mouth away from the nape of his neck, twisted the hilt, and bit back. Chaaaahhh! Blue blood gushed from the point where the blade was pulled out.
“Ugh—.”
Abel’s face contorted. It wasn’t a fatal wound, but it was deep enough. Just as he could do damage to Ronan, Ronan could do significant damage to him.
『—You almost got yourself into trouble. Alibrihe, that traitor will surely die a painful death.”
But apart from that, Abel was relieved; from his point of view, being trapped in the quarantine dimension was a greater danger than Ronan, who could be disposed of at any moment. Ronan landed in a swallow and opened his mouth.
“If you can do it—whoa, go for it.”
The corners of his mouth were smeared with blue blood. Abel twisted the corners of his mouth, swung the sword around as if to clean it, and asked a question.
“I don’t understand, why are you so frantic? Do you really think there’s still hope for you?”
“I can tell you’re not confident by the way you’re talking. Did your balls shrink as a side effect of absorbing the power?”
“Huh.”
Abel sighed at the childish provocation. It was almost pitiful to see him so clueless. The two wenches had interrupted him, but there was an unbridgeable gap between them in the first place.
Ronan’s legs, which were now wobbling, were a testament to that. He was already at his limit.
He was bluffing as hard as he could, but his body was no match for it. Abel lowered his blade and spoke.
“I’ll show you how foolish you are. It’s your nephew. Do you know where you are?”
“Not interested.”
『Hear, hear. This is the star that the giants once swept away.”
“—What?”
Ronan frowned. Seeing that he had his attention, Abel spoke up.
“I recognized it as soon as I stepped on the ground. This is the characteristic of a planet that has been struck by them. It is stripped of all life and turned into a pale, bloodless mass. All the creatures that once roamed the stars have become spirits and live within.”
Abel patted his chest. Ronan didn’t answer. A star struck down by giants, by the way, sounded familiar.
“So what do you want me to do?”
“This is truly a great power. Look at that, nephew, for it has once and for all broken the bonds of perdition from which the intelligences of these stars will never escape.”
Suddenly, Abel raised his sword and pointed it at the night sky. In the direction he pointed, countless clusters of stars danced.
For a moment, Ronan wondered what he was supposed to see. A white, slender beam of light shot from the tip of Abel’s sword. The beam of light stretched deep into the night sky, pointing to a bluish dot.
“See? That’s the star we live on.”
“What?”
“The world seems so vast, but from a distance, it’s just dust. Don’t you think it’s pathetic that such a small world, with such small minds, can’t understand each other and are trying to kill each other—.』
Abel clicked his tongue, and I could feel his hatred in his crooked brow. Hatred for the foolishness of destroying the brightest of all, deposited like strata, to crush itself.
“It is only that tiny speck that you strive so desperately to protect. If you let go of even that, you will surely destroy yourself, but if you let go of your mortal grasp even now, you will… No, we can protect the entirety of the Light as far as the eye can see.”
“Dude, they don’t usually keep that.”
『No. It is to protect. From a fate of self-destruction.”
Abel said firmly. Lowering his sword, he looked back at Ronan.
“So give it up now. I swear I’ll end it without any pain. Don’t waste what little life you have left defending something so insignificant.”
His eyes were serious, and life sparkled in them. Ronan did not answer.
His sunset gaze still rested on the star he had lived in. Surely Abel was right. It was small, insignificant. Dust was an understatement.
Ronan, who had been silent, spoke up.
“Okay—obviously you’re right, it’s not a big deal.”
“I guess they finally got it—”
“I’ll be honest, it’s heavy, because everyone’s talking about being a hero and the dawn of an empire and all that, but I’m just a swordsman. To save the world–fucking hell, that’s a ridiculous order in retrospect.”
Ronan smirked. Memories of the past flashed through his mind like a zoomer’s lamp. Abel shook his head at the unexpected response.
“–Why is he saying that out of the blue?”
“Well, I think I can do this, I can keep that one.”
Ronan the Starry-eyed slowly raised his arm. He let the star fall between the index and middle finger of his outstretched right hand. The faint blue glow was beautiful.
“It only fits in one hand.”
A smirking Ronan clenched his fist as if to reach for the stars. The mother star disappeared from his grasp. Abel clenched his fist, realizing that his persuasion hadn’t worked.
“–Maybe my hair wasn’t as bad as I thought.”
“If you can do it, do it.”
Ronan lowered his gaze and glared at Abel. He had the momentum, but that was all. Abel smiled bitterly.
“Poor nephew, I’ll send you to your brother’s side in a moment.”
Ronan’s luck ran out the moment he failed to kill it with a single blow. There was no more mercy to be had. After a brief mourning, Abel stomped the ground and charged.
The sand he was standing on exploded and his form disappeared.
“It’s slow.
Abel was dismayed. Time had slowed to a standstill, and all he could do was maintain his original speed.
The foam of the waves had ceased, the sea breeze ruffling his hair. Ronan was making some semblance of movement, but it was barely enough to get his sword into a stance.
“Don’t resent them too much. You’ll all be living inside me anyway.”
Muttering to himself, Abel struck, the blade falling in a wide arc, just in time to reach Ronan’s throat. A hollow metallic sound echoed through the pause.
“What!”
“You’re now–whoa, and I thought I was slow.”
Abel’s eyes widened. Ronan raised one corner of his mouth. His sword, which had sprung up from nowhere, clashed with his own.
“How.”
It couldn’t be happening. He panicked, and this was his moment of weakness. Ronan, who had recovered his stance, immediately counterattacked. With a bang, he pushed Abel back and unleashed a barrage of swords.
“Kick—!”
Ronan was suddenly moving at the same speed as him. Abel returned fire. Kagak! Hundreds of embers leaped into the air as invisible strikes crossed.
“You, what have you done!”
Abel cried out, but Ronan swung his sword in silence. The increasingly violent battle reached its climax. With a loud crash, the two men were thrown apart and landed on the ground.
Abel’s face was uncharacteristically serious. Ronan cleared his throat and spoke.
“Wow–I was right after all.”
“What?”
“It was so sweet. Your cub’s blood.”
Ronan chuckled. Abel, realizing what he meant, was horrified. Ronan had suddenly bitten him on the nape of the neck to suck his blood.
“No way, you’re cursed with—.”
“Yes—I think I’ve finally gotten rid of all that stuck in the bottom. Thanks to you.”
That’s why he didn’t take his mouth off, even as his nose was breaking. To improve his odds even slightly, he needed to completely remove the curse from his body.
The strategy was to drink the blood of Abel, the current king of the giants, to facilitate the healing by drinking the blood of the previous giant king. Luckily, it worked, and now it was time for the finale.
“This is it. Not twice.”
Taking a deep breath, Ronan gripped the hilt of his sword with both hands. With his strength somewhat restored, he felt he could try the trick he had planned to use against the King of Giants. Abel growled at his arrogance.
“You must be nearing the end of your life, judging by how much you’re talking, and you know it won’t make any difference.”
Now that he’d thrown off his facial expression management, he was pretty pissed off. In truth, Abel was right. Even if the curse had been melted away, and his skill level had risen, his body was too weak.
‘If I had known this was going to happen, I would have kissed him.
Ronan’s lips twisted as he suddenly remembered Adeshan’s face. Why was he remembering that stupid myth now, the one about loved ones haunting you when it’s time to die.
Lose, you die. If you win, you die. Still, you can’t back down, so you fight. Abel, pondering something, assumed the same stance as Ronan.
“Okay, I’ll hang out with you. Just this once.”
“Thanks for that.”
Ronan laughed. The waves crashed loudly as the two men closed their mouths. Ronan and Abel stood facing each other, swords raised.
“So, let’s meet as one.”
Abel said. Time stretched as he concentrated. At the same time, the two figures disappeared from view. Two explosions erupted over the sleeping sandbar.
The two men rushed toward each other. But they couldn’t see each other, only the instinctive sense that the other was there, that they were getting closer.
Soon enough, the seconds crossed. There was no echo of metal. Time began to flow as it should, and the two people who had disappeared reappeared. It was the moment the still wave broke.
Blood gushed from Ronan’s mouth.
“—Yuck.”
Ronan staggered back. He slashed at his abdomen. The blood throbbing and gushing from the wound was unrealistically red. Behind him, he heard Abel’s laughter.
“Ha ha. Look at that.”
His vision was blurring. Abel looked back with a victor’s smile. Straightening his posture, Ronan spoke in a cracked voice.
“You are the–the setting sun.”
“What?”
“I was afraid to lose, to attract the light of the world–that’s why I planned this insanity, to destroy those who gave me their hearts–to remain forever, in the moment when it burns most beautifully.”
What the heck are you talking about?
Abel asked, but no answer came. Ronan’s tarnished eyes replayed the memory of watching the sunset with Adeshan on the Hill of the Four Seasons. He caught his breath and spoke.
“Don’t be a dick. Let the sun go down. After the night, there must be morning. The sunset is beautiful because people’s lives exist outside of it—.”
Abel narrowed his eyes at the unintelligible sound. Deciding that it was just a bunch of bullshit, he was about to deliver the finishing blow. A blue line drew across Abel’s throat.
『——!』
An eerie sensation raced through my body. I hadn’t even realized the blade had touched me. I’d already cut myself when I’d just made my move.
“You.”
I didn’t really have a secret technique. He just did what he was most confident in. The simple act of drawing a knife and slashing, faster than anyone else.
Poof. Abel’s head slid along the section and hit the floor.
“So—.”
Ronan dragged his horse’s tail. Poof! A fountain of blood soaked the sand. Dropping his sword, he muttered low.
“Farewell, Abel.”