Campione! - Volume 17 - The Hero's Name

by Taketsuki Jou

  Lancelot's charging attacks carried power on the level of meteor crashes.

  Even if they wanted to support Godou, it would be quite risky if the girls stayed too near.

  Hence, Kusanagi Godou was left alone again.

  Meanwhile, Lancelot and her horse also landed unaccompanied near Godou. On further thought, Godou recalled how she had always appeared with the other two heroes ever since her resurrection.

  This was his first time meeting her alone since their reunion at Sardinia that time.

  "Yo."

  "Greetings again, Kusanagi Godou."

  Formerly enemies in the same boat at one point, the two of them were able to greet each other quite naturally.

  In addition, Godou was struck by a sense of dissonance. This Lancelot—seemed a little strange. In front of the doubting Godou, Lancelot descended lightly from her white horse. At this moment, the sense of dissonance felt even more intense.

  "What's wrong? You seem a bit weird, you know?"

  "This knight? Refrain from uttering nonsense. Though raised from the dead, this knight's soul has not changed the slightest. This is still Lancelot du Lac, the same one who engaged you in a deathmatch in the past."

  Waving her honey-colored hair, the female knight smiled gently.

  "Fufufu. One ended up reaping benefits from yielding the first opportunity to take to the field to Perseus and the Great Sage. Not only has this knight gained the chance for a one-on-one duel against you but also monopoly over the blessings of the Arrowhead's Discus."

  The three heroes enjoyed greater combat power when manifesting alone.

  Godou recalled his sworn sister's past teachings. Furthermore, preferring to showcase her own valor instead of relying on a three-against-one advantage, this truly befitted the militant war god's style.

  But if that really were the case, why would she—?

  Godou discovered the reason for his sense of dissonance. It was the fighting mindset and resolve ever present on the battlefield.

  Although Godou had greeted Lancelot, the [Storm Bringer] still continued to spin overhead, gradually approaching critical point. Verethragana's holy swords also remained as well.

  In order to use these weapons any moment, he did not relax at all.

  However, the knight of the lake had currently landed with her trusty partner, the white horse, smiling with the same expression as she had shown when chatting in that seaside cafe in the past.

  Another odd thing that Godou noticed was how she had yielded the vanguard position to others despite her zeal for charging straight at the enemy to attack head on.

  Harboring these thoughts, Godou repeated his comment.

  "You really did change after all."

  "Fufu. Perhaps."

  A smile surfaced on the corners of the female knight's lips. This time, she admitted it ambiguously.

  "In fact, confusion is currently what this knight feels."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Rather... This knight is simply entering the fray due to the vanguard, the two heroes, retreating in haste. However, an issue still eludes understanding the whole time. Is the current battle truly what the 'King of the End' wishes for?"

  At this moment, the name of the great hero of the orient, Rama, had already been revealed.

  Nevertheless, Lancelot probably still considered the name of her lord to be the "King of the End." Also, Godou could understand the reason why she felt lost.

  "That's right. Inexplicably, that guy has a lot of common sense and he even avoids battle."

  "Kusanagi Godou, as someone who knows this point clearly, why do you fight His Majesty?"

  "Well, since a god with the ability to destroy the world has shown up, even someone like me feels compelled to intercept and oppose him in the spirit of volunteerism. Also, there's—"

  After touting his sense of public morality, Godou stared straight at the female knight.

  "Maybe it's possible to tell through fighting? I found out the method to viciously crush what's forcing him to endlessly repeat these battles of Devil King extermination... this thing called destiny."

  Call it destiny, call it fate.

  Call it guided by destiny, or call it bound by fate.

  There are many who preferred these ostentatious descriptions. However, this was what Godou thought: Bound by something like that—Was that really a good thing?

  It should be the opposite instead. It would be much better to crush so-called destiny and fate, to ignore them.

  Although Godou felt no attraction at all to words like these, he was inspired with a strong opinion lately after witnessing the experiences of the man burdened by the destiny of Devil King extermination.

  Hence, Godou shared his thoughts indifferently.

  "Although I don't understand what those gods are thinking, I honestly feel that destiny or whatever should just go to hell. What do you think?"

  "Hahahaha!"

  Lancelot suddenly burst out in laughter, but not in mockery. She looked like she was laughing quite heartily. Laughter straight from the heart. However, what had provoked to laugh so much?

  Suppressing her laughter, the war god of the lance spoke to Godou who was staring in puzzlement:

  "Oh dear, pardon this rudeness. Actually, there is another cause for this knight's confusion."

  "What is it?"

  "You. After all, one still owes a debt to you, the victor of our duel. It is most displeasing, this feeling of tainting one's pride as a warrior."

  "You owe me something?"

  Godou had no idea at all. The female knight explained to the baffled Godou:

  "Indeed. You are the man who fought this knight, Lancelot, and obtained victory, fair and square. The deserved reward is still currently in forfeit."

  "Reward...?"

  "Mm-hm. On the verge of my death, the late beloved child, Guinevere, used the Arrowhead's Discus, thereby taking in this knight's soul."

  Lancelot suddenly approached Godou.

  However, she did not draw her weapon. Neither did she give off any intent to fight or to murder. Instead, she walked over at a leisurely pace. Unbelievably, right before Godou's eyes, she also—

  Suddenly kneeling down, she bowed her head reverently.

  An action that Erica would perform on occasion, this was precisely knightly etiquette.

  "What are you doing?"

  "Kusanagi Godou, here is what this knight believes. To uphold loyalty towards one's lord of old in the truest sense, yet simultaneously offer compensation to the respected foe—This knight is convinced it is possible. For this purpose, one believes that you ought to be entrusted with the lance of Lancelot du Lac."

  "!?"

  "Will you listen to this knight's wish?"

  Part 4

  After Lancelot du Lac disappeared...

  To avoid distracting from his concentration, Godou focused singlemindedly on raising the [Storm Bringer]'s power.

  Naturally, Rama was probably still driving his chariot vimana somewhere in the sky. Currently, he no longer had any bodyguards left by his side. Hanuman was also engaged in a deadly battle against the recovered sworn sister.

  This was the perfect opportunity to attack Rama.

  Godou still had four holy swords of gold remaining, but two of them had already been reforged into blades for slicing Perseus and the Great Sage Equaling Heaven. Unfortunately, swords could only change targets once.

  He had only two holy swords remaining for slicing Rama. Naturally, he could ask Yuri to find out Rama's position through spirit vision, then send the holy swords over. However.

  (Godou-san...)

  While he was thinking, Godou heard Yuri's worried voice.

  She had apparently seen it through spirit vision—Godou had a feeling that things would not go as easily as imagined.

  "Did I spend too much time on those guys...?"

  Perseus, the Great Sage Equaling Heaven and Lancelot. While occupied with those three, the great hero of the orient might ha
ve prepared countermeasures to resist Verethragna's holy swords.

  —No helping it if that were the case. Standing on the plaza where he had faced the three heroes, Godou focused on maximizing combat strength.

  One or two minutes passed in this manner.

  "You're late."

  "My apologies. Preparing a certain item required some time."

  The sky chariot vimana finally arrived in the sky above the diamond-shaped plaza.

  Godou started the conversation and Prince Rama responded calmly from the charioteer's perch. Whether the plaza's shape or the calm conversation, everything contributed to a feeling like they were simply meeting up for a promised game of baseball.

  Realizing this, Godou laughed lightly.

  However, Rama was currently holding a steel longbow in his hand. In addition, the gigantic square of a magic circle behind the vimana was undoubtedly the Divine Sword Mandala.

  Godou was informed by the [Warrior]'s power of deep insight into the enemy's nature.

  Rama had gathered up the remnants of power from the four mandalas that had been sliced apart, thus managing to create a fifth. Undertaking this task must have took him quite a bit of time.

  Moreover, stabbed upright in the ground of stone tiles, next to Godou were the two holy swords for slaying Rama.

  In addition, there was also the [Storm Bringer] hovering high in the air—the black sphere of darkness known as a gravitational storm.

  Roughly twenty-four or five meters in diameter. At last, it had reached maximum power. The black sphere was making distinctive sounds, spinning rapidly on a vertical axis.

  Strong winds were already starting to blow towards the black sphere.

  Not just in this plaza. Wind was blowing across this giant ship of Pushpaka Vimana as well as the surrounding air space. This was the warning sign of the gravitational storm produced by the black sphere.

  Both sides were ready for battle. All that remained was simply pulling the trigger.

  Rama ordered his vimana to land. The master jumped off lightly and gazed in Godou's direction. Were this a baseball field, it would be roughly the distance from home to second base.

  The [Storm Bringer] was also facing off against the [Divine Sword Mandala] in the air, separated by a similar distance.

  Both were hovering in the sky roughly fifty or sixty meters above the plaza.

  The time for a decisive duel was imminent. Godou suddenly spoke up.

  "Let's put it this way, your weakness... Or rather, I already know how to defeat you."

  "Really? If it is not too much trouble, please tell me."

  Rama's curiosity seemed to be piqued. He leaned forward.

  This was probably his first time meeting someone pointing out a "weakness" in his completely awakened state. The aristocrat's reaction made Godou smile wryly. Actually, it was nothing special.

  "Well, you possess an endless supply of powerful weapons plus your magic power is quite astounding too. You're probably a thousand times stronger than me when attacking."

  Hoh, responded Rama with a nod.

  "That's why, no matter what, I must find a way to force you to defend. When switching to defense, you're probably about five hundred times stronger than me. Between offense and defense, it's pretty obvious which side is where openings will appear."

  Back when the sworn sister, Luo Cuilian, had landed the strongest palm strike...

  Since his awakening, Rama had endured that direct attack at one point.

  It could be called a fact that slight openings would appear when he engaged in defense instead of offense. The problem was that no matter which situation it was, Rama was still far more powerful than Godou.

  However, perhaps provoked by this inane joke...

  Rama smiled and went "I see." The rust-like layer of his expression seemed to thin out in a rare moment.

  "Understood, Kusanagi Godou. In that case, attack me with your full power. I, too, shall go out in full force against you, summoning my entire strength in order to defeat you without switching to defense."

  "I really wish a guy who's already strong enough without doing anything won't say stuff like going out in full force..."

  Rama's stern declaration and Godou's sighing grumbles...

  This dialogue served as the trigger to sparking the fight.

  The Storm Bringer and the Divine Sword Mandala were facing off in the air. The former was summoning a storm using gravity's power of universal attraction while the latter had turned into aerial artillery unleashing a barrage of thousands of lightning strikes.

  The mandala released over ten thousand bolts of lightning.

  The black sphere absorbed all of these attacks.

  Indeed, hanging in balance was a battle of offense and defense in equilibrium. However, Godou had already learned from the skirmish at Minamibousou previously.

  The sword's gravitational storm could only resist the Divine Sword Mandala for two minutes at most.

  During this time, unless he launched another attack to subdue Rama, there would be chance of victory. There was no time to hesitate within the limit of these few short minutes. Godou's only option was to unleash the Storm Bringer's power in full force at the "best opportunity."

  At the same time, he ordered Verethragna's two holy swords to attack.

  Stabbed upright on the floor of stone tiles next to Godou, there were two golden swords. One of them floated up and flew swiftly to attack Rama.

  However, an arrow suddenly manifested in Rama's left hand.

  The arrowhead was made of gold. Swinging this arrow like a short sword, the Devil King exterminating hero struck down Verethragna's holy sword. No, that was not all.

  Unbelievably, struck down by the golden arrowhead, Verethragna's holy sword easily shattered!

  "I heard from His Highness Perseus... The war god Verethragna is the retainer of the Persian supreme god Mithra."

  Without waiting for Rama to finish, Godou ordered his holy sword to attack again.

  This was the last blade for slaying Rama. However, the hero king of ancient India threw the arrow in his hand at the holy sword flying at him.

  The holy sword of gold and the arrowhead of gold clashed violently—

  The holy sword shattered. Continuing to fly with unabated momentum, the arrow stabbed into Godou's shoulder, which happened to be the base of his left arm.

  "AHHHHHHHHHHH!"

  The wound felt scorching as though incinerated. Godou immediately pulled out the arrow with his hand and threw it at the ground.

  However, the heat was swiftly spreading from his shoulder to his left arm then towards his chest.

  At this rate, the heat was probably going to invade his entire body. Godou immediately raised his magic power to dispel the magical divine power harming him. It worked as planned.

  The heat subsided and Godou exhaled in relief. However, his left arm had become immobilized.

  Godou felt that this was not poison. Most likely, it was a power of light, akin to flames—

  While Godou concluded with certainty, Rama explained:

  "The weapon just now was what I requested directly from my old acquaintance, the god Indra, to borrow from the Persian realm of divinity, the arrow imbued with Sun King Mithra's power."

  In the past, Perseus had used the power of Mithras, equated to Mithra, to seal off Persian Warlord Verethragna's abilities.

  This was equivalent—Rather, it should be called the upgraded version.

  Speaking of which, Erica had mentioned before. Persian mythology of antiquity had its origins in the Indo-Aryan branch of the ancient Indo-European language family, given the geographic proximity. In particular, the war god Verethragna had deep connections to Indra, the god of thunderstorms. Perhaps this was indicated by both gods carrying the epithet, "destroyer of obstacles."

  As a side note, it was quite amazing that Rama could prepare such a weapon in such short time.

  "As expected of the great hero, supported by various pantheons... Is
receiving sudden gifts of weapons part of his power too?"

  The same had happened during Rama's campaign against his fated rival, Ravana.

  Just as Rama was locked in a desperate struggle against his opponent, the Rakshasa King, his companion suddenly informed him of a certain matter. Namely, that among the arrows that had been bestowed upon him in the past, one of them was "Shiva's arrow, capable of killing even the immortal Ravana."

  Truly the hero who had the world and the gods standing on his side.

  In that case, Godou tried using another incarnation.

  "For victory, hasten forth before me... O immortal sun, I beseech thee to grant radiance to the stallion!"

  The [White Stallion] incarnation was able to use the glorious power of the sun.

  In response to Godou's spell words, a second sun rose in the eastern sky. It was currently the time of the day when the original sun was gradually sinking west.

  Next, the solar flare shot from the second sun turned into blazing white flames in the shape of a stallion, flying towards Pushpaka Vimana and Prince Rama.

  The hero, who had caused so many commotions this time, was recognized as "a great sinner causing hardship to the populace!"

  However, a new arrow appeared in Rama's left hand at this moment.

  "O arrow of the hero who had shot down nine suns! I beseech thee to bestow such miracles upon me!"

  A jet-black arrow. Both the arrowhead and the fletchings were jet black.

  It was quite similar to the arrow that Rama had used in Minamibousou last time. However, this was a deeper black. Godou recalled how Rama had called the previous arrow merely a "counterfeit."

  Most likely, this was the real thing—In front of the trembling Godou, Rama readied his bow of steel.

  Placing the jet-black arrow on the steel bow, he drew the bowstring to its limit then fired.

  The arrow flew towards the eastern sky. Striking the flaming white stallion that was rushing towards Pushpaka Vimana, the arrow instantly destroyed it.

  Even the sun's flames could be repelled and erased—What an ultimate archer to an absurd degree.

  Furthermore, the Storm Bringer was also about to reach its limit. The black sphere's storm of gravity was gradually weakening. Despite barely maintaining balance, in ten-odd seconds, it was probably not going to hold off the Divine Sword Mandala's myriad lightning strikes any further.