Winter Fall (I)

by Shūsuke Amagi

  This fate was a kind of misfortune for the girl, and to Alsheyra it was a kind of insult.

  "......It feels like I've been wearing the wrong shoes the whole time." [1]

  "Eh?"

  She unconsciously spoke the words that she originally hadn't wanted to say.

  However, in this situation, even if she let some words slip, Alsheyra didn't show a particularly regretful expression, and she still showed a smile like that past.

  "......Ah."

  Leerin felt it.

  "Well......"

  "It's alright, you haven't done anything wrong. If we want to talk about who made a mistake, it should be that fiancee without any patience." [2]

  But even with this, even if it were truly the case, it was still the situation of bad luck befalling one's own children. [3]

  It refused to gather at Alsheyra.

  It refused to gather at the person who wanted to end everything.

  Even if she thought about these questions time and again, it wouldn't have any effect on reality, and she couldn't find any ways that were enough to affect the current reality.

  "Because I wasn't able to become a mother, really."

  "......Nn."

  Watching Leerin nodding her head as a response, Alsheyra manipulated the lift machine that they had arrived at, lowering them down to the ground.

  The space that she saw underneath the lift was in darkness. A tense feeling had already been spread all over that black space. This darkness certainly also knew already, knew that the time destined to come was already close by.

  The lift continued lowering.

  Carrying Alsheyra and Leerin, it went to her side.

  ◇

  Kalvan was a person who couldn't stand it when he wasn't clear on what had happened and how things were currently turning out.

  He had noticed an abnormality and taken action before receiving Elsmau's report, and while he was moving he had heard her report.

  But even with this it couldn't be said that he understood everything about the current situation.

  The Queen hadn't explained anything regarding the core of the situation.

  To one who had always lived in Grendan, though he could speculate a part of it, it was still only a speculation.

  And even if he asked the Queen, the Queen's reply would only be 'the continuation of last time' or such an ambiguous explanation. He was very clear that the Queen had always been that kind of person.

  Even so, he still couldn't help but ponder the situation.

  But, it was also reality that as a Heaven's Blade successor, he was an extraordinary Military Artist at the same time.

  To face the situation, what he had to do was decide by his own judgment.

  Complying with directions, he ignored the battles of the monsters unfolding in the palace surroundings, and as he entered the inner palace, Kalvan saw it.

  A man and woman overlapping each other.

  "Reverse and Cauntia?"

  The blood-red liquid covering the ground let him know that this wasn't a joke. Kalvan's expression became completely serious, and he watched the area behind them.

  A few steps behind Reverse and Cauntia, she was there.

  "You did this, huh!"

  Though it was the appearance of a girl, Kalvan wouldn't be fooled by such a simple thing. The girl seemed to be preparing to begin moving once again, and then Kalvan had dropped in front of her.

  "......Please move aside."

  "You're the one that should move aside."

  As he replied in a low voice, he took up his restored Dite.

  Golden Kei surrounded Kalvan's entire body.

  External Kei variant - Armed Sword.

  An armor composed of countless swords formed from Golden Kei covered Kalvan's entire body.

  The momentum made the air in the surroundings into a gale, blowing towards the girl's body.

  At that time, a different presence dropped behind Kalvan's body.

  "Kalvan!"

  The owner of the voice was Kanaris.

  "Don't come over here!"

  Kanaris immediately restored her Heaven's Blade after dropping down and wanted to team up with Kalvan, but Kalvan stopped her.

  "Go meet up with the others and prepare an attack with them."

  "But......"

  "Go, you must have seen it as well."

  Kalvan only needed to look at the overlapping bodies of the two people behind the girl's back and in the center of his vision, and everything was already understood without having to be said.

  "Um......"

  "Go."

  "Alright......"

  Leaving this word, Kanaris once again leaped.

  What had she been thinking of saying at the end? The moment he thought of this, Kalvan's expression changed.

  It became a smile.

  Had she wanted to tell him to make sure to take revenge for the two of them?

  "Now I, Kalvan, will be the sacrifice."

  His imposing Kei hadn't weakened at all, and this also showed that his heart didn't have the slightest haze.

  Losing before a battle was impossible.

  "Though I've always frowned at them, whatever I say, everyone is also a Heaven's Blade successor as I am, and it is up to me to avenge them."

  His Armed Sword spread out, and golden Kei extended out of the Heaven's Blade, endlessly spreading its territory. As if a kind of viscous liquid, but with a speed that wasn't like a normal liquid. It was spread all over its surroundings in a moment, covering the girl, covering Lævateinn, entirely.

  "Disappear before us!"

  He yelled.

  Brandishing his Heaven's Blade.

  It was as if the surrounding golden Kei listened to his orders.

  The golden Kei that had spread out assaulted Lævateinn all at once. The originally liquid substance became hard in a moment, changing into a group of blades or spears flying towards the girl.

  There weren't any places to escape to. Kalvan wouldn't leave that kind of gap.

  But Lævateinn seemed as if she didn't understand what was happening to her, simply standing in place.

  The group of blades pierced Lævateinn.

  Though they pierced her, this didn't mean that it had completely finished her.

  If it were the kind of opponent who could be won against like this, then the two of them wouldn't have died.

  "Hah!"

  Kalvan had already taken the opportunity to advance to the next stage of Kei refinement.

  The golden Kei became a sphere with Lævateinn as the center, as if to capture prey.

  External-type Kei variant - Illusory Bestial Edge

  Inside the sphere, the countless blades that had originally pierced Lævateinn's body once again began moving. The golden Kei that filled the surroundings produced pressure at the same time. Moreover, this pressure also produced heat, and along with the destructive energy that Kei already had, the heat increased further.

  Cutting, crushing, and burning.

  Three attacks assaulted Lævateinn.

  As if the golden Kei was a monster feeding on its prey.

  Even filth monsters that possessed extraordinarily strong regenerative capabilities would be ruined beyond recognition by this merciless Kei technique - that was Kalvan's Illusory Bestial Edge.

  However......

  "Tch!"

  Kalvan didn't have the feeling of scoring a hit, so he could only click his tongue, and the Illusory Bestial Edge once again became a new Armed Sword to cover him again.

  Nothing could be seen inside the thick Kei of the Illusory Bestial Edge.

  It didn't feel like a hit. He had captured the enemy, released his Kei technique, and up until the blades began dancing he had been able to feel a definite contact. For the most part, he was able to feel the resistance of the prey through the Kei.

  But currently there were no such feelings.

  He wouldn't make rash judgments, that was who Kalvan was. He could capture whatever small chan
ges happened inside his Kei technique, so because of this he wouldn't make any rash judgments.

  The change in the feeling made him feel that at some point, his prey had suddenly been switched out.

  Changing from a solid to something like flowing sand, that kind of incomprehensible situation had appeared inside the sphere.

  (Did she escape?)

  Had the girl escaped from Illusory Bestial Edge through some method that Kalvan hadn't noticed?

  If that were the case, then even continuing to maintain Illusory Bestial Edge was a waste of effort......

  "............"

  Kalvan shut his eyes.

  He didn't prepare to release Illusory Bestial Edge.

  Rather, with his sword on his shoulder, he stood while waiting for the changes that would come next.

  The sounds of battle from outside of the palace were continuously becoming intense, and the Kei that raged in all directions like a storm wasn't something of a normal Military Artist.

  (Lintence?)

  Kalvan obtained that answer from the nature of the Kei.

  Though the Heaven's Blade successors should have already entered the palace because of their orders, Lintence had ignored them?

  He shouldn't be the kind of person who would forget about the original to fight with small fry.

  Then had something caught his attention?

  He didn't have any time to let Elsmau explain. Kalvan once again focused his concentration, removing thoughts about unnecessary information from his mind.

  The feeling that Illusory Bestial Edge transmitted definitely had some secret.

  If he didn't unravel that secret......

  "Hmm......"

  With regards to time, he had only closed his eyes for a moment, but because of the speed of his senses, he felt that it had been quite a long time.

  Kalvan opened his eyes.

  "That's how it was!"

  After shouting, he swung the sword on his shoulder.

  The Armed Sword converged, becoming a huge sword.

  External-type Kei variant - Golden Yaksha.

  The swing would cut Illusory Bestial Edge into two in a flash, and Kalvan's strike would cut into the thing that he had seen through.

  That was how it should have been.

  "What!!"

  He felt an unexpected feeling that wasn't the Kei technique.

  There was something suppressing Kalvan's body.

  His arms, feet, torso, there was something grabbing on to him, stopping him.

  Looking closely, it was a hand, an arm.

  It seemed from the exterior to be the arm of a young girl, but there were countless of these arms as if they grew out like weeds, continuously appearing from somewhere unknown, and then tightly grabbing Kalvan.

  "Did I misstep!?"

  He couldn't help from yell out.

  No......

  He couldn't have gotten it wrong.

  That thing was such an organism.

  He couldn't let himself be tricked by her outward appearance. He hadn't felt a bit of Kei from her, but she had killed two Heaven's Blade successors, and she who had escaped from Kalvan's Illusory Bestial Edge with some unknown methods definitely wasn't the being that her exterior suggested.

  Then, Kalvan's understanding was correct, as expected.

  The countless arms changed further. As if responding to the movements of Kalvan who was attempting to break free, the arms began becoming hard one after another.

  Kalvan became as if he were trapped inside a great piece of stone.

  "Damn......"

  Even his strength couldn't break this stone.

  And the next change began in a moment.

  Kalvan felt the presence above his head.

  He raised his head to look, and there were countless gun-shaped objects. All of the barrels were aimed at Kalvan.

  "Shit......"

  If he continued maintaining Illusory Bestial Edge, never mind breaking the stone around his body, he wouldn't even be able to clear away the guns above his head. Kalvan released his Kei technique, letting Kei flow for the purpose of defense.

  The Kei produced a large explosion.

  In the light of the explosion, when Kalvan escaped his manacles, and at the same time cleared away the mass of guns, he saw it.

  A figure, coming closer to himself.

  It had come from the direction of the released Illusory Bestial Edge.

  "In that case!"

  Kalvan shouted this out during the explosion. While flowing Kei through his sword, he swung at the girl who approached him.

  There were no weapons in the girl's hands, but her slim fingers were filled with the presence of death.

  The cut and the girl's hand clashed and grazed each other, sending off sparks, the attacks of both sides filled with killing intent.

  Kalvan's sword cut into Lævateinn's arm.

  Lævateinn's hand pierced Kalvan's throat.

  "Ugh......"

  After a short groan, Kalvan fell down.

  ◇

  Kalvan had been defeated.

  Before she had been informed of this fact by Elsmau, Kanaris had already felt this from the flow of the air.

  Kanaris was now inside one of the passageways of the palace.

  Behind here were the lifts that Alsheyra and Leerin had just used.

  It was a passageway leading underground.

  Though there were still other methods to go underground, since Lævateinn had already appeared, she only wanted to use this road.

  Kanaris had the premonition that Lævateinn would destroy the palace, and then continue to here.

  Kanaris' expression was extremely grave.

  If it were the past, she would definitely have felt that that group was messing around and become furious because of it, but she currently wasn't that way. [4]

  Three had already been defeated.

  This definitely wasn't a situation to joke around.

  Those inside the palace had already succeeded in taking refuge. Other Military Artists were currently outside the palace dealing with the mysterious group of troublemakers.

  It was up to the Heaven's Blades to deal with Lævateinn's original body.

  It wasn't that she had received detailed commands from the Queen, but rather by the time she noticed, she was already doing this.

  Because this was all she could do in the current situation.

  Kanaris looked behind her.

  The Heaven's Blade successors had already gathered.

  Savaris, Troyatte, Ruimei, Barmelin, even Haia who hadn't even been a Heaven's Blade for long, along with one more person.

  "Claribel-sama?"

  Kanaris couldn't understand her appearance.

  "Ahahaha, it's been a long time."

  She who had run away from home to Zuellni, why had she appeared here?

  "Though there was some cause in the middle that I'm not clear about, the battle here will become quite dangerous after this, so please deal with the enemies outside first......"

  "Ahahaha...... actually, that's true."

  Claribel showed a reluctant smile, holding her Dite out to show Kanaris.

  Kanaris also had a similar thing to this Dite whose unrestored form was adorned with various patterns.

  "A Heaven's Blade......"

  "Nn, I don't know what's going on, but it's already like this anyway."

  The last remaining Heaven's Blade should have been something of the dead Tigris.

  The grandfather's item had been succeeded by the granddaughter. Nothing of the sort had happened in the records before. Moreover, the Queen wasn't the kind of person to care about interpersonal relationships like that.

  Then, the Queen had to have approved her power to make this kind of decision.

  There wasn't any time right now to think about why she who should have been in Zuellni had ignored the distance between cities and suddenly appeared here.

  Even if she thought, the fact that she was here wouldn't change.
<
br />   "I understand."

  Kanaris said this as she straightened herself back up.

  "What about Lintence-sama?"

  Troyatte was the one who asked this.

  "He's distracted outside."

  Savaris had answered him. His voice had become hoarse since the time he had almost died from having his throat cut open. He could have gotten it completely treated, but Savaris had intentionally selected this kind of voice.

  "Ah, judging from that guy's style, he might already be somewhere around here."

  "That's true, if even we have arrived, then there's no way he hasn't."

  "Then, what should we do? Do we use our full power to defend here?"

  Ruimei also showed a laughable expression beside the two of them. He also felt that he wanted to fight individually if possible.

  Of course, all of the people here probably thought that way.

  "Reverse, Cauntia, and Kalvan have already been defeated before us. There's no meaning in attacking one by one."

  Kanaris replied.

  "What about battle strategy?"

  "Leave it to me to decide."

  She replied to Barmelin.

  "Actually, it's already too late now to think about battle plans."

  There was only one enemy.

  But the fighting methods of the enemy weren't clear.

  "In the situation where we don't have any information on the enemy, formulating a battle plan is impossible."

  "In terms of teamwork, none of us can win against those two people who got wiped out."

  Savaris said this. Naturally, the two people he was talking about were Reverse and Cauntia.

  "This time might be quite the crisis."

  Troyatte understated.

  "Her Majesty said that there's no concern regardless of what you destroy."

  "Is there anything now that she would care about if it got destroyed?"

  Ruimei grumbled at Kanaris' words.

  "......You guys only have those complaints because you're all too stubborn~"

  An unfamiliar voice suddenly entered everyone's ears.

  Though it was an unfamiliar voice, it definitely didn't belong to an outsider. Everyone instantly understood who had spoken.

  It was Haia who was a bit further back.

  "What did you say, kid?"

  Ruimei glared at him, but Haia didn't care.

  "I just wanted to say that because you guys always fought individually, you can't even fight together anymore~"