Chapter 456

Chapter 456

He swung his sword. The sunset exploded and the world opened up.
A long, straight line was drawn in the darkness of the abyss.
“World—.”
It was a success: a horizontal line ten meters long, blazing a deadly scarlet. It was my world, shaped in the form of an attack. Within a width narrower than a blade’s edge, the sunset blazed in my mind’s eye.
Akasha screamed as she turned to mist and dispersed.
Β Β 『■■! ■■■■■!』
It was an eerie sound that made my blood freeze. It was almost as bad as having my leg chopped off in the last world.
I turned my head in horror. A part of the vaporized creature’s body was dissipating, stained the color of the setting sun. It was a gash in the world, like a fallen leaf on fire.
“Hmph!”
I swung my sword around to slice through Akasha’s other parts.
Two short straight lines intersected and drew in the air. There was a snap and sparks flew through the air, but no screams were heard. He had fled to the edge of the abyss.
The footing is completely gone and the fall has begun.
“Do you think you’ll miss it?”
He glared at the spot where Akasha had been.
My body was falling at a tremendous rate, but the world I had carved was still clear and shining through.
Suddenly, a thin crack began to spread out, centered on a straight line of sunset color.
“That’s—.”
Like the world, it was a scarlet-colored crack.
The crack was widening much faster than I was falling.
It was the moment when the entire abyss turned into a vein of orange juice.
Kwachaaaaaang-!!
The darkness fell like a pane of glass shattering.
My vision cleared. The barren landscape of Da Conha stretched out before me. As if waiting for it, the wind whipped up and slapped him in the face.
“Crack!”
Suddenly there was a floor and I fell on my ass.
I bounced to my feet and corrected my ragged breathing.
“Huff, cough…”
Your lungs were inflating and deflating rapidly. It was a side effect of suddenly consuming a large amount of mana. I could see why deep-sea fish would die as soon as they came to the surface.
I looked up, clutching the hilt of my sword. The sky was still pouring down a maddening downpour. The rain hurt, so it wasn’t a dream. The abyss had collapsed.
“You did it.
I clenched my fists. My time with Cain had not been in vain. I had shattered a darkness that seemed impenetrable for all eternity.
Akasha was nowhere to be seen. As I spun around looking for her, something crunched beneath my feet.
“Huh?”
I lowered my gaze. Gracia’s note glistened beneath her shoe.
It had fallen from Akasha’s sleeve. The note hadn’t changed in appearance from the one Schlieffen had given her as an apology for his crush on her when she entered Pileon Academy.
Nearby lay Nabiroze’s emeralds, Jaifa’s unworldly ornament, and Akalusia’s note plates.
“—Schlippen.”
Blood dripped from my bitten lip. It was clear from the circumstances that I had taken it from the future of the world.
Probably a memento. Schlieffen wasn’t the kind of bastard to give a note to just anyone.
The brief feeling of exaltation faded and anger took its place.
The self-pity that boiled in my stomach spilled out of my mouth.
“Future me—what the hell was I doing?”
It was full of things I didn’t understand.
I couldn’t understand why Akasha, who was dying, suddenly grew stronger, why the future of the world, which I thought was the ultimate power, was shattered, or why I, the future me, who would have eaten it in a heartbeat, couldn’t stop her.
“Huh? Asshole—.”
I gathered up the memorabilia, including the note plaque.
I shoved them all into my pockets and my coat felt heavy.
I had to fight hard not to think about the faces of the people who had been victimized.
If their smiling faces flashed in front of my eyes for even a moment, I felt like my head would spin.
“—Yet.”
I muttered, covering my eyes with my palms.
“We can still turn it around.”
I know. It’s times like these that you need to keep your cool.
This was a time for grit, not whining.
Sarante said he came to me to change the future, which meant that if I killed Akasha here, there would be no future plague.
Calm down, Ronan. Calm down.
As I replayed the words over and over again in my head, I pulled my hand away from my face.
“You son of a bitch. Where did you go?”
Akasha was still invisible.
Ceniel was still spewing out life like a quasi-active volcano.
I pulled out my mana tracker. The needle in the orb was still locked on Ceniel.
I was about to hit the detect button when I found the right amount of Akasha’s mana.
“Ugh!”
My wet bangs slapped me in the face. The wind was blowing hard. His blood pressure spiked and the veins in his temples pulsed.
“Holy shit, that’s annoying!”
Normally, I would have, but now I couldn’t stand it. I’d had enough of the drab world. As he gripped the hilt of his sword, the color of blood stained the blade.
“Fuck off!”
I aimed for the sky and swung the strike. A blade of sword energy shot out that could cut through a mountain range. The two tails of the blood crescent disappeared into the dark clouds.
Kaaaaaaaah-!
The cloud layer exploded and dispersed in one fell swoop. The wind and rain stopped at the same time. The reverberations of the heavy rain, which had turned to dew, began to slowly descend like fog.
But the blue sky I was hoping for didn’t appear.
“What.”
I almost lost my grip on the sword. A shiver ran through my body like a lightning strike. Amorphous darkness boiled where the blue sky should have been.
A dark mass the size of all of Da Konya, writhing like an inferno ready to spew sulfurous fire at a moment’s notice.
Then, the spinning needle of the mana tracker locked on to the center of the darkness.
Naturally, my gaze went up.
『■■—■■■■—.』
There was Akasha.
“You.”
He was breathing raggedly, like a man who had just run a sprint.
I was a wreck, not unlike myself, fresh out of the abyss.
And when he came back, he was in a bad way.
Blood was dripping from his limbs.
His robe, torn in many places, was reduced to rags.
“—surprisingly not bald.
However, there was one difference between Akasha’s injuries and the ones we’ve seen so far.
The hood had been ripped off, revealing a head of dark hair.
It was very thick and long. His hair, blowing in the wind, reminded me of a black lion’s mane.
In all my life, I’ve never seen black hair that rich, except for Adeshan.
Akasagya growled.
『■■■■—!』
I still couldn’t understand it. But I knew for sure that he was extremely angry.
I swallowed hard. They’d dug into the abyss, but frankly, things weren’t looking good.
That roiling darkness must have been Akasha’s creation. It was an extension of the world, by the feel of it. It was vast, far beyond the world Cain had shown me.
My condition, on the other hand. I doubted I’d ever be able to create a world again.
The sweat from his palms was sticking to the hilt of his sword.
Catching my breath, I raised one corner of my mouth in derision.
“What are you talking about, asshole.”
No matter how much it sucked, I couldn’t walk away.
It didn’t matter if I could do it now. It was a situation where I had to do it.
Akasha struck with her only left arm. The darkness twisted in response. I prepared my world, but to my surprise, it wouldn’t start.
Damn, if only I had three days to learn it properly.
After some head scratching, I made a decision.
“Help me just this once!”
I put my other hand, the one holding the sword, on Ceniel.
A massive surge of life force poured into my body, and I felt an indescribable wave of nausea.
“Ouch.”
The 10 consecutive spatial moves weren’t this bad, either; it was like having your stomach organs rolled around in a leather pouch.
Still, her judgment was correct, and her mana was filling up fast. My hair, affected by the life force, was growing longer. I didn’t release my hand until it reached from the nape of my neck to my shoulders to my waist.
“Haaaaah—!”
He gripped the hilt with both hands. A trickle of nosebleeds soaked the floor, and I could feel Ceniel’s life force pulsing through my body.
I said, wiping the blood from my nose with my sleeve.
“Good.”
I could see why Akasha was looking for Seniel.
I can understand his unconscionable strength. It’s the least I could do after stealing life force from three parallel worlds.
The world filled with white swords. A flood of images colored the surroundings. A three-meter radius turned into a sunset field. The wet stone floor swayed underfoot as grass grew over the dirt.
“『■■■!
Then, Akasha lowered her left arm.
The darkness fell, scary to aim at me with an index finger that drew a violent arc.
My vision quickly filled with blackness. The darkness of the world seemed to embody the evil that would destroy it.
I couldn’t avoid it, and I didn’t want to.
Gripping the hilt of my sword tighter than ever, I leapt toward the darkness.
“Haaaaah!”
My bangs flipped. The ground receded in an instant.
A trajectory reminiscent of a meteor’s tail was being carved into the spot where I had passed. The high peaks of the valley were already being swallowed by darkness.
“Ronan—!”
I heard Lynn’s voice, but ignored it.
The moment of truth came.
When I was sure the distance had closed enough, I swung my sword. A straight scarlet line cut through the darkness.
Kaaaaaaaah!
The darkness tore from side to side like a rift in the water. At the same time, an impact the size of five of Akasha’s fingers slammed into her body.
“Kaboom!”
Blood rushed to his throat. The landscape that surrounded him tumbled.
It was the aftermath of a world collision. I remember Cain telling me that it was inevitable, unless it was completely overwhelming like the first time.
It was killing me, but I didn’t care.
“It works.
It was worth it. If I had lost the power struggle, I would have fallen into the abyss long ago.
I spit out the blood that pooled in my mouth and swung my sword again. A flurry of strikes followed. Hundreds of searing sword marks dotted the dizzying darkness. With each line, the darkness was torn apart. The dismembered remains of the darkness fell to the ground beneath their feet like snowdrifts.
“——!!!”
Now my voice was like the howl of a beast.
It must have been quite a sight to see da Conya from afar. I was a salmon going up the waterfall, not against it, but decomposing. Every minute and second felt like an eternity. I was about halfway through the car.
Suddenly, Akasha’s voice rang out from the depths.
“『■■-■!
Then the darkness that had been pouring in one direction changed.
The darkness, whose overall shape changed like a grip, grabbed me.
“Nimi—!”
It was quick. A finger the size of a pagoda, I couldn’t dodge it. With a brain-shattering jolt, darkness enveloped me. The ground gave way beneath my feet.
“No.
My world went wild.
The darkness of the Abyss was pressing in on me from all sides, trying to crush the world somehow. The image of the sunset hills was about to turn into a blur of color.
Suddenly, my vision cleared and the blue sky opened up.
“Huh?”
The sky was blindingly blue. The occasional clouds looked like ink paintings. It was the most beautiful sky I had ever seen in my two lives and four worlds.
I couldn’t figure out what was going on.
“Is this—?”
I was falling into the sky.
Akasha’s mana is on the ground, so it wasn’t originally the sky.
I couldn’t believe it, but this was Akasha’s world, too.
“——What the hell are you, Akasha?”
I laughed even as my body ached like it was going to explode.
Now everything was confusing.
The only thing I could be sure of was that this was my last fight, and that it wasn’t long. He felt a sudden surge of life and laid down his sword.
『■■!!!』
Akasha tore through the crack above her head, her chained hands outstretched.