Volume 7, Chapter 5 - Despair That Crawls Out of the Darkness, Part 2
“-――?”
A chill ran down her spine, and she looked towards its direction with a surprised face. A jet-black dragon fell from the sky, accompanied by an air of misery like black smoke.
Liz wasn’t the only one who noticed it. The soldiers around her also forgot to fight and watched the extraordinary scene.
A mass of malice that ruthlessly covered the sky was dominating the sky. Everyone could feel the horrible atmosphere on their skin.
“This presence―…!”
Liz’s eyes narrowed in discomfort, but she noticed the deadly atmosphere of the battlefield and raised her Flame Emperor.
At the moment, a powerful impact rang throughout her entire body, and her feet caved in heavily.
“You have a lot of leeways… to get distracted against me, don’t you?”
A lifeless, monotone voice slipped through the gaps between the hammer and the red sword as they competed.
Liz couldn’t confirm the identity of the darkness that floated in the sky and glared at Luca for interrupting her. In contrast, the lifeless eyes take it head-on.
“…Are you that worried about that thing?”
Luca glanced at the sky as if to confirm and then strengthened the force on her hammer to crush Liz. Liz was forced to use her legs to push back.
“I mean, who wouldn’t be curious if they felt some kind of unseen power?”
“I can’t figure it out ― do you really think you can?”
While Liz was searching for her next move while their weapons clashed against each other, Luca gave a strange response, as if she was trying to distract Liz’s mind.
Confusion surrounded her, but Liz remains calm and unconcerned.
“Right… That’s why I wanted to make sure.”
In response to the anger lurking in Liz’s words, flames erupted from the red blade that intercepted the hammer.
Luca clicked her tongue and jumped back and distanced herself from Liz.
“…What troublesome flames. It’s as persistent as a snake.”
Luca glanced at the left sleeve of her burnt clothing and snorted in annoyance.
Liz took her gaze away from her and looked up at the sky as she had just done. But there was the same sky as usual, and the signs of the disaster had faded.
She could guess where it was by the faint residue, but she could not identify the person.
“So, will you die when your troubles are over?”
Luca gives a refreshingly fake smile while muttering these disturbing words. Needless to say, her eyes are not smiling.
Liz crushed the turmoil boiling in her heart and began to measure the distance between her and Luca, slipping away so that she would not notice it.
“……I’m not going to die.”
With extreme caution, Liz closed the distance between her and Luca. All the while, she was staring into the void and talking.
“I don’t like your baseless confidence. I also hate your beautiful appearance, which knows no hardship.”
With dull eyes, Luca never stopped smiling, letting her devastated emotions emerge.
“Indeed… I know nothing of hardship compared to you.”
Liz couldn’t deny it. She knew that she was blessed.
When she thought back on the events that had taken place since she was born, it seemed like many bad things.
But the only thing that has kept her from rotting away has been the help of so many people.
“I’m surprised you admit it. For someone with such a big title as the sixth princess, you’re quite honest.”
“My sister told me that I was too honest, but I can’t help it because it’s my strong point.”
She doesn’t realize that it was her pure heart that had nurtured her “charm.”
To put it another way, it was because she was “honest” that she had difficulty getting allies. She would have gained more supporters if she had shown the ugly side of humanity when everyone else was trying to beat everyone else down.
If she had learned a few tricks, she might have been able to solidify her position without ever meeting Hiro.
Of course, Liz had her fair share of jealousy, anger, and hatred. But such things were minor when compared to the malice of adults.
In a court of adultery, intrigue, conspiracy, and vengeful spirits, it was unacceptable to be as fastidious as Liz.
“……Oh, you really are beautiful, aren’t you? You are like a newborn baby, untainted. You are pure, noble and absolutely, a brutally white, beautiful light.”
Luca’s murderous intent began to flood throughout her body. The malevolent intent that was generated caused the air pressure to change, tightening the space.
“Ha ― haha, haha… ha…”
Luca began to shake her shoulders as she cleared her throat with a raspy voice.
“Ahahaha―… No.”
For the first time, Liz saw her expression change. It’s hard to describe it as human; it’s so far removed from the evil face.
Luca’s face contorted to the point that tears of blood began to flow, and she howled throatily.
“I won’t accept―…!”
The ground exploded, unable to withstand the vicious energy Luca unleashed.
“I won’t accept that there is such a thing as a human being!”
With a large amount of dust behind her, Luca rushed towards Liz with great force.
Liz, who had been measuring the distance and assessing the time, did not hesitate to take a step forward and thrust out the “Flame Emperor.” The sword’s precise trajectory drew a red line in the sky and stretched out to Luca.
Perhaps, Luca saw through the cutting edge that came close to her nose, and she lightly turned her head to the side to avoid it.
The wind pressure generated by the attack tore through the skin of her cheek, gouging out the air in front of her with great force.
“Kuh!?”
Immediately changing her footing, Liz moved her right foot back and twisted her body to pull her arm back.
“I knew you were up to something.”
There, Luca managed to shake off the threatening blow from the red sword, but the momentum from the hammer caused her feet to move off the ground and her body to float in the air.
“It’s my turn now, isn’t it?”
A storm of wind is blowing.
The giant hammer closes in on Liz as it gouges the ground in all directions.
Luca’s physical strength was astonishing, as she could easily manipulate the weapon with one hand, but what was even more astonishing was her attack, as she was able to unleash such attacks at will.
While it seemed as if she was swinging down on her head, she was actually coming at Liz from the right with great force.
While Liz was at the whim of the giant hammer that repeatedly behaved strangely, she responded to everything with a single breath.
“Ha!”
She slammed her left fist into the red blade, forcing the blade to shield her.
In order to pass the impact, she removed her left arm that was attached to the blade and dodged the blow with perfect timing. Next, she slammed her right foot as hard as she could at Luca,due to the large gap that was created due the recoil of the hammer.
But Luca, who was in front of her, caught the kick head-on, twisted her right wrist, and thrust the hammer up from below with great force.
“I’m going to blast your guts out!”
Realizing that evasion was no longer an option, Liz threw her body into the hammer as she collapsed.
While Luca frowned at what appeared to be a resignation, Liz slammed the tip of her blade into the hammer as if to pierce it with the “Flame Emperor.”
The friction of the opposing forces created a huge spark.
“Oh, a contest of strength?”
“No way,it’s just you alone.”
As soon as she replied to Luca, Liz loosened her grip on the handle altogether. The equilibrium was broken, and the Flame Emperor was launched into the sky with great force.
It was a surprise, and Luca’s eyes were filled with astonishment as she looked up with a dumbfounded expression at the sight of the “Flame Emperor” flying into the sky. Next, Liz slammed her body into the ground and twisted her waist on the spot using her right hand as a support to sweep away Luca’s legs.
“Wha――”
Luca was thrown to the ground and lost her posture.
Recognizing this, Liz stood up vigorously and gave her a fierce kick to the abdomen.
“Gofuh!?”
As if tumbling down a cliff, Luca’s body bounced off the ground, covered with a heavy dust cloud. Luca disappeared into the dust, creating a whirlwind in the blood-saturated battlefield.
Liz, who had been staring at the scene, suddenly glanced at the sky and raised her hand.
“…Welcome back.”
The “Flame Emperor” returned to Liz’s hand, spewing flames of protest from the red blade.
She then took a moment to catch her breath as she looked at the still rising cloud of dust.
By listening to the clamor around her, she could see that most of the “Ghost Squad” had already been defeated, and the little game was about to end.
This was the result of the “Order of the Rose” not retreating from the pressure of intense hatred.
“…It will be over soon.”
Whether it was because of the battle against the strong or because she was more in tune with the “Flame Emperor,” her senses were sharpened to the point where she could sense the air of the battlefield.
The atmosphere of the entire battlefield was about to change completely.
Some of the enemy troops that had been closing in on the main camp seemed to have completely stopped in their tracks.
The large hole that had opened up in the Grantz Central Army did not seem to be filled, but on the contrary, it acted like a pit, trapping the main army of the Six Kingdoms that had attacked.
The Grantz reserve army attacked from behind and seemed to encircle them.
“The rest is up to the right and left armies…”
When she looked to her left and right, she recognized the raging dust of war in the distance.
It seems that the battle is still going on.
The sounds of the sword fights drowned out any sounds from the other side, but there were probably just as many dead bodies piled up as here, forming a sea of blood.
In order to minimize that, she must――,
“……I must defeat you, right?”
The woman who was slowly approaching ― had a painful scar on the left side of her body that made people want to turn away, and her sleeve flopped in the wind to further emphasize her missing left arm.
But what bothered her more was the expression she had on her face.
“……Eagle, Eagle, please lend your strength to your sister.”
She bent down in front of the skull, her vacant eyes wandering like a lost child searching for her mother.
She mumbled to herself as she brushed off the dust.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, this will be over soon. It won’t take long, so… please wait here.”
With the compassionate expression of a holy mother and the muddy eyes of a devil, she stroked the skull wholeheartedly. Each time, a piece of dried flesh fell out of the skull.
“Are you cold? You’ll only have to endure a little.”
Many people suffered from mental disorders caused by long-lasting warfare.
Liz had never seen someone as broken as Luca before, although their reactions varied greatly.
Liz searched for the reason why she had put herself on the battlefield ― the hatred that drove Luca.
Many thoughts came to mind, whether she was led by revenge, seeking a place to die, or searching for a purpose in life, but Liz decided that none of them were true.
“I’ll eradicate the blood of the Grantz, and I’ll fill your heart with it.”
After giving the skull a lingering pat, Luca sat up and turned to face Liz.
“It is about time you die for Eagle.”
“…You have nothing.”
There was nothing in her mind.
Liz concluded that Luca had been broken from the start, that she had only returned to her true self after losing Eagle, though she did not know who the man was.
She didn’t know when, where, or why, but she was who she is now.
“…You’re wandering, aren’t you? Because you lost your place.”
The loss of her dependent existence had brought her back to her true self.
In the beginning, she was a living corpse, and she had no hope in this world. Even though she despaired about the world and wanted to die, she survived because of a combination of factors.
Her happiness was the opposite of Liz’s ― or perhaps it was her misfortune.
Although she was born as a cursed child, she was saved by many people. Luca was born as a blessed child but was abused by many people.
And both of them survived to this point, whether they wanted to or not.