Renzo fought with Enkephalos in hand.
Ares was beside himself with joy.
[At last! You’ve realized you need my power, Renzo!]
Renzo did not answer him.
In truth, he wasn’t in a position to answer while dealing with Tyr’s flurry of strikes—
More than that.
[......?]
Strangely enough, even Enkephalos itself showed no response to Ares.
‘What?’
Ares sensed something amiss.
By design, Enkephalos grants power to its wielder and, in doing so, makes them ever more dependent on the weapon.
Frondier had been wary of Enkephalos because that ability was hidden; Renzo had nearly been beguiled; and Aster, resisting it, had ultimately done the dangerous thing of firing Enkephalos at Poseidon.
But now—
“Hyah-aaap!”
Renzo brought Enkephalos down.
“Ghhk!”
Tyr barely slipped away with a low groan.
The motion was big, but it was fast and the momentum was nothing to scoff at.
“Ah, this is a fine spear! Galling as it is, I can’t help but admit it!”
Renzo answered Ares at last.
Yet even as he praised Enkephalos while raising it, there was no sense that Renzo was leaning on the spear.
It was different from when he fought Aster.
Clearly, the Renzo of now—
“Tyr! To surpass you, I have to use this spear!”
[Renzo.......]
At that sight, whatever Ares felt—
He stayed silent for a long time thereafter.
“A mere spear won’t overturn the result!”
“Right, a spear alone isn’t enough!”
KANG, KAANG! KAKANG!
The exchange began anew.
A storm of spear-chains and kicks that turned the area upside down. Their fight grew fiercer still until even the sound of the air grew ominous.
And then Ares—
[......I see.]
He slowly closed his eyes and let his presence fade.
Chances are, Renzo would have no occasion to hear that voice ever again.
Of course, Renzo would only realize that much later.
Right now he was wholly immersed in battle with Tyr.
His thoughts were accelerating. Never had his head turned faster than now.
—It’s a picture!!
—Is it hard to cut a picture?
A picture.
So Aster had said.
That the principle of the single stroke he used was cutting a picture.
‘A picture?’
TAANG!
Renzo dodged Tyr’s fist and leapt. Tyr pursued, continually trying to slip inside the spear’s range.
‘That what’s in front of my eyes is a picture?’
Renzo once more grasped the air and hurled it.
One was Enkephalos; the other hand seized empty air and flung a strike. Neither was something to take lightly.
‘And here I am, regretting only now that I’m missing an arm!’
Tyr realized that at some point, Renzo had climbed to a level close to his own.
It wasn’t because he held Enkephalos. The body gripping it, the thoughts, the way of fighting—were growing at a startling pace.
This wasn’t a matter of potential.
Renzo was simply—
“No, no! This isn’t it! Still not enough!”
Simply starved for battle.
As if rapidly absorbing nutrients from a meal after a long hunger—
Renzo was now absorbing Tyr’s skill like that.
‘I have to kill him now!’
At this point, no one could tell who would win.
Even Tyr found it hard to predict victory.
But if both survived this fight and met again thereafter—
It would certainly be Tyr who lost then. He knew it in his gut.
Huff─
Tyr drew aura to both feet.
KWA-AANG!!
Then Tyr kicked off the ground.
“Wha?!”
Renzo was taken aback. A charge clearly different from before. Reckless, in a sense.
SWISH!
The spear thrust. A strike aimed at the face of the charging Tyr.
This was the very strike that had kept Tyr from attempting such a charge until now.
Accordingly—
SHEENK─!
Tyr’s cheek split. A long cut traced on to his neck behind it. Blood burst forth; it could hardly be called a clean evade.
Tyr had resolved to accept a wound of this scale.
‘You—now of all times......!’
Tyr had been avoiding damage all this time.
His refusal to bleed was, perhaps, a god’s pride.
Now he threw that away.
CRACK!
Closing to arm’s length, Tyr stamped hard with his lead foot—
WHUMP─!!
“Kh—hack!!”
He drove a crushing blow into Renzo’s abdomen.
Aura and Renzo’s naturally fearsome physique were pierced through; a hole opened in Renzo’s body.
SSSS─!
Renzo flew through the air as-is. Tyr chased that body.
‘I have to make sure!’
He’d certainly pierced the abdomen, but with that level of damage, Renzo would live. He was that kind of bastard.
To crush his head for certain, Tyr sprang.
“Kh—ghh......!”
Hurtling through the air, Renzo—miraculously—did not let go of Enkephalos.
‘What ridiculous power!’
No matter what he tried, he couldn’t kill his own momentum. Renzo barely managed to right himself in midair. The hand gripping the spear drew back.
‘That spear won’t reach, Renzo!’
From that posture, all Renzo could do was thrust.
Given the spear’s length, no matter when he initiated the attack, Tyr need only adjust the distance.
Renzo stretched out his empty hand to sight along Tyr, and ground his teeth.
First, there was Amper.
He’d been hit by a technique he couldn’t even comprehend and had fled pell-mell.
Next, Shrink Step. That movement skill said to be used only by gods—he’d had no counter.
And then Aster’s single stroke.
Some instinct in Amper had sensed that all of it was connected in a single line.
“A picture...... is it......!”
Light flashed in Renzo’s eyes.
Everything before my eyes—
If all of it is nothing but a single sheet of paper I can touch—
‘I’ll pierce all of it!’
Spear Arts
Renzo Original
From Start to End
A single line extended in midair.
Tyr knew that spearpoint would not reach him. This was not a distance that could. If it were aura being fired, he could dodge.
Yet what reached him—
“......What,”
Was that by the time Renzo’s drawn-back hand first started out—
THMP!
It had already thrust into his heart.
THUD!
“Gk—ugh!”
Renzo only stopped after he slammed into a tree.
And before him, Tyr—
“.......”
Stood.
“What is that technique called.”
A hole pierced straight through the center of his body.
What that meant was obvious.
Seeing it, Renzo grinned wide.
“Kh-heh heh...... It’s called From Start to End.”
“......Hah.”
Tyr let out a short laugh.
“You name your techniques like garbage.”
Plop.
And he fell.
Slowly, Tyr’s body began to shine and scatter.
Drip.
Renzo slid down farther, nearly lying flat. The neck barely caught on the tree ached.
“Hah, hah, hah...... See that? I won.”
There was no strength in the smiling Renzo’s face.
He knew what came next.
There was a hole in his abdomen, and even before that, the injuries he’d taken were severe.
Even this technique now—he felt like he’d used a current he shouldn’t have. He felt his life force being converted into mana.
‘Come to think of it, when I first met Frondier, he felt like this.’
And that bastard had done this to his own body and still survived?
Son of a bitch.
Renzo looked up at the sky.
The sky of war was blue. The Empire’s sky was always so.
Even while he fought.
Even while he thrashed to stay alive.
While he killed countless people, and countless comrades died.
He lived committing every kind of sin.
How that ends is obvious.
“......Ah.”
—It was fun.
Yeah, he’d decided to pursue only that.
He’d chosen to live that way until the very moment he died.
That would do.
“......That so.”
But someone stood before him.
He’d just put together something that sounded nicely like last words.
Clack.
“Huh?”
And cuffs snapped onto his wrists.
When he looked closely at the person before his eyes—
“......You gotta be kidding me.”
A truly hateful fate.
Obsidian’s warden, Esther, was looking down at him impassively.
“I’m glad to hear you had fun.”
“......You damn bitch. If you were here, you should’ve helped.”
“Me? Help you?”
“.......”
Renzo was at a loss for words.
Esther reached out and poured healing into Renzo’s abdomen.
“Hey. I’ve got a hole in my gut—think that’ll do it?”
“Who knows.”
“.......”
“But I’m going to keep you alive.”
Esther looked at Renzo.
Renzo hated those eyes to no end.
“Do you have any idea how much debt of sin you have to pay?”
“How much?”
“More than can be paid by dying.”
Renzo’s face hardened.
So long as Esther was alive, Renzo wouldn’t even be free to die as he pleased. He knew that.
“Y-You bitch. I’ve hated you for a very long time. No killing intent for me, no hatred, no anger—just those eyes that grab me like you’re clocking me in because that’s your job. I’ve wanted to gouge them out for ages.”
“Do so next time, then.”
“You f—ngh!”
Renzo flared up and tried to rise, but with a hole in his abdomen and cuffs on his wrists, that wasn’t happening.
“Renzo.”
“What, you damn bitch.”
“Until you’ve paid every last bit of your debt of sin, you will never leave Obsidian. There will be no escape for you now. I promise ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) on my name.”
Esther spoke. Renzo frowned as if displeased. What crap. I’ll get out somehow again.
Whether she knew Renzo’s thoughts or not, Esther went on.
“Galling as it is, considering your body, you’re going to live disgustingly long if nothing special happens. You’ll be released before you die.”
“Ha, you making fun of me?”
“Renzo, when you get out.”
Esther’s hands settled atop Renzo’s cuffed hands.
“Live a boring life.”
“.......”
Renzo’s face twisted into something strange. Esther’s hands atop his own, and everything she was saying—every bit of it gave him the creeps.
“I’ve chased you for a long time. I know everything about how you’ve lived. That’s enough now, living like that.”
“......What the hell are you on about. By the time I get out, I’ll be on the verge of croaking. Don’t give me that crap about the rest of my life.”
“Don’t worry, Renzo. What you did helped the Empire. I saw it with my own eyes—no one else.”
“Wasn’t exactly my intention.”
“Intention doesn’t matter in sin. Only the result matters.”
Esther nodded.
Whatever the process, Renzo had killed a god. And one of the gods most threatening to humans, at that.
“Your sentence will be much lighter.”
“How much lighter?”
“You could be out in about thirty years.”
“That’s too long, you prick!”
***
Pielot poured black aura out toward the surrounding gods.
His own original draw-sword style, learned after being hit by mana of the Demon Realm.
Though the Demon Realm’s mana was gone now, strangely, whenever he used that technique the aura turned black.
“Grrr......! This one is dangerous......!”
But gods were different from low demons.
Even as they were struck by the pouring aura like sheets of rain, the gods were not cut down completely and closed in on Pielot.
“Pielot, you’ve gotten stronger.”
Dierre spoke.
“How about you?”
Pielot asked.
“I’m the same as ever.”
Dierre answered.
At that, Pielot grinned.
“If you’re the same, shall we do it like the old days.”
Tap.
Dierre set a hand on Pielot’s shoulder.
“I was waiting to hear that.”
Support Magic
Link
Dierre linked to Pielot.
What his eyes sensed, Pielot sensed.
This was the technique he’d used when they first faced Frondier.
“......You—how can you do this.”
Back then they needed another mage, but now Dierre used Link alone.
Pielot was surprised, but soon snorted.
“‘Same as ever,’ my ass.”
And then—
Upon everything seen through Dierre’s “eyes”—
“Right, that’s the weak point.”
Pielot’s aura reached.
SHEENK─!
In that instant, a god’s left arm was severed.
“Graaagh!”
The sword-aura from just now was different. The power was the same, but the direction and angle weren’t.
‘This bastard, the gaps in my guard—’
Dierre’s eyes saw all of it. The opponent’s stance, the exposed body, the seams of the muscles, even the movement of the pupils.
A body that, while it saw, could not catch up. Dierre’s talent was only up to that point.
But if Pielot was there—
“This is something else.”
Dierre smiled with excitement for the first time in a while.
“Feels like I’m omnipotent.”
“Yeah, yeah—remember it’s thanks to me.”
