Chapter 207: Traitors (8)
The war between heroes and demons had been going on for the past five hundred years, no, even long before that. The long, bloody history left all heroes with one shared, ingrained belief: “Demons are not human; they are merely monsters wearing human skin.”
That single belief carried immense power. Just as one would look at a grotesque shrimp or crab and think that it looked delicious rather than disgusting, heroes didn’t feel a strong instinctive aversion to fighting and killing demons.
But what if the enemy wasn’t a demon? What if the blood on their hands belonged to another human?
Yurina trembled uncontrollably as she stared at the blood coating her sword. “A-ah! Uugh!”
She blankly stared down at the face of the woman revealed beneath the fox mask and witnessed her faint, fading breaths stopping, leaving only a lifeless expression.
I killed someone.
With her own hands and with her sword, she had taken a person’s life. She knew they deserved death. They had used people in the slums as errand runners and ruthlessly killed anyone who disobeyed. But still, they were humans.
“Haa! Haa!”
The smell, touch, and image of blood flooded her mind. The blood spilling from the torn-open abdomen and the blood dripping down her sword were no different from her own.
***
With a battle cry, the rabbit-masked man charged toward the frozen Yurina. Yurina stared blankly at the sharp dagger swinging straight at her, frozen in shock.
I leaped in front of her and swung my sword toward the charging enemy. Ashen Flame Style First Form: Ash Severance.
The blazing Ashen Flame shattered the rabbit-masked man’s dagger and swallowed him whole. He thrashed and screamed as the flames consumed him. Soon, the charred corpse fell to the ground with a dull thud.
Yurina stared at the corpse, her face pale blue, and slowly lifted her eyes toward me. “Dale”
Seeing her trembling like that naturally brought back memories from my previous life. Back when I worked as a mercenary after graduating from the Hero Academy, I had killed a man who had drawn his sword on our comrades to steal the contract reward. Many years had passed since then, but the memory of my first kill remained as vivid as ever.
Now, whether hero or demon, taking someone’s life no longer bothered me. But back then, I reacted exactly like Yurina. No, it was even worse. I had thrown up everywhere afterward. At least, Yurina wasn’t vomiting on the spot.
Yurina stammered, her face completely drained of color. “I-I thought... I thought they were d-demons.”
I looked at her and quietly closed my eyes. It wouldn’t be hard to comfort her right now. I would say, “You didn’t know, so it can’t be helped. Considering what they did, killing them is no different from killing demons. You’re not at fault. You did nothing wrong. So forget the blood on your sword.”
But what meaning would empty consolation have?
“Yurina,” I said.
“D-Dale?”
“What are you doing? There’s still one left.”
“B-but...”
“Did you forget you insisted on fighting alone earlier? Or, should I finish this for you?”
“N-no! I-I... I’ll fight.”
Yurina tried to grip her sword, biting her lip. But her sword slipped from her shaking hand and rolled across the ground. “A-ah! S-sorry, Dale.”
She scrambled to pick up her sword.
I looked at her silently and clicked my tongue with open disdain. “Tsk. Forget it. I’ll handle it.”
Yurina grabbed my arm. “D-Dale! I-I can still fight. Really.”
“The enemy isn’t a demon. He’s human.”
Yurina kept quiet.
“Can you kill someone who’s the same as you?”
Yurina’s face tightened. “T-that’s... T-they, they’re bad people, right? So...”
“Oh? So, if someone’s bad, that means it’s fine to kill them?”
“T-that’s not what I meant!”
My voice sank low. “Yurina. Stop trying to make excuses.”
I pointed to the blood on her sword. “The blood on your sword isn’t from a monster or a demon.”
It belonged to someone just like her.
“Knowing that, can you still swing your sword?”
Yurina looked at her sword. She could feel the blood running down the blade, and the nausea rising in her throat. But she fought it down with clenched teeth.
Still gripping the sword, she stepped toward the wolf-masked man. “I can.”
***
While Dale and Yurina had been talking, the wolf-masked man had been swinging his greatsword at the ring of Ashen Flames surrounding him, trying to carve out an escape route.
He clicked his tongue as his full-strength swings failed to disperse the flames. “No helping it then.”
He had wanted to avoid using the power bestowed upon him by “that person,” but there was no other choice.
I’ll deal with that bitch first, he thought.
He shot the male cadet a brief glare, then turned his gaze toward the female cadet. Despite her young age, her swordsmanship far surpassed his, but swordsmanship alone wasn’t everything in battle. The wolf-masked man recalled her pale, trembling expression after killing the fox-masked woman and slowly raised his greatsword.
Then, the sound of metal resounded, and fragments of aura burst out; swords clashed, tearing up the ground around them.
Yurina winced as the heavy shock traveled through her hands. “Ugh!”
Even with her monstrous reserves of mana, she was barely managing to withstand his strike.
What incredible strength! Where did someone like this come from? she wondered.
He wasn’t just a typical Ranker. Even among Rankers, he was easily a High Ranker, strong enough to be placed within at least the top twenty. Someone like that could receive elite treatment anywhere on the continent. Why was such a powerhouse wearing a strange mask and lurking in the Valhalla City slums?
“Who are you?” she asked.
“Asking a masked person who they are, could there be anything more foolish?”
The wolf-masked man lowered his stance and swept a kick across the ground.
Yurina hurriedly jumped. As she soared upward, the greatsword, wrapped in blazing aura, sliced upward with a terrifying force that tore through the air. It was a slash rising from below, a strike impossible to dodge mid-air.
But Yurina poured mana into her toes and stepped on the swinging greatsword, using it to launch herself into the air once more.
She instantly positioned herself behind the wolf-masked man’s back, a perfect chance to end him. But then, she hesitated. Her sword, mid-swing toward his spine, halted abruptly in the air.
A low chuckle slipped from the wolf-masked man’s lips. “As expected. Too sloppy.”
He spun around and swung his greatsword straight at her neck.
Yurina barely blocked the greatsword and was thrown backward with a scream. “Aghhh!”
The man’s dry voice echoed in her ears. “Let’s finish this quickly. I still have to deal with that gray-haired brat after you.”
He was going to deal with Dale? The words were absurd enough to make her laugh, yet an image naturally surfaced in her mind.
What if Dale weren’t as strong as he was now? What if she had to protect him? What if she hesitated at that time, spared the enemy because she feared blood on her sword, and because of that, Dale ended up injured?
Yurina’s expression twisted ferociously. She pictured Dale collapsed, bleeding, helpless, and something hot and uncontrollable surged from deep within her chest. A burst of silvery radiance exploded from her left breast, her mana erupting so violently that she lifted into the air.
Shock widened the wolf-masked man’s eyes. “What the...!”
Yurina wasn’t using a technique. She was floating purely through mana output. It was like a human flapping their arms and flying.
Suspended in the air, Yurina exhaled quietly. “Hah!”
Silver sword energy streamed from her sword, drifting freely in the air like fish set loose into water. Dozens, no, hundreds of strands of sword energy glided outward and formed a massive circle. It was a sphere of silver, made entirely from sword energy, looking like something familiar.
Instinctively, the wolf-masked man took a step back from the overwhelming mana radiating from the silver globe. “Is that... the moon?”
Yurina swung her sword down toward him. “Moonlight!”
Hundreds of strands of silver sword energy, forming the massive sphere, cascaded downward like a waterfall onto the wolf-masked man.
He swung his greatsword wildly, trying to deflect the torrent of silver sword energy, but was soon overwhelmed and collapsed beneath the onslaught. “Kugh! Guh!”
The silver radiance that had engulfed Yurina slowly dimmed as she gently descended to the ground. She walked toward the fallen wolf-masked man. Her hand shook faintly around the hilt of her sword.
Before she knew it, she turned to the side. “Dale.”
He had stepped back, arms crossed, as if asking her to make the decision by herself. Yurina looked down at the wolf-masked man. He was breathing raggedly and was alive, but barely.
She had to kill him herself. This was different from when she killed the fox-masked woman. At this moment, she knew this man wasn’t a demon, yet she still had to take his life.
There’s no need to feel guilty, she told herself.
He was a heinous criminal. No, criminal or not, he was an enemy who had swung his sword to take her life. Why should she feel guilt for killing an enemy who sought her death? There was no reason to hesitate.
Suddenly, Dale’s voice echoed in her mind.
“Stop trying to make excuses. The blood on your sword isn’t from a monster or a demon.”
Right, no matter what justification she clung to, she was about to end the life of someone human and someone like her, all by her will and her blade.
“Knowing that, can you still swing your sword?”
Yurina drew a short breath.
At the Hero Academy, they taught that swords should be drawn against only the Demon God’s servants, that it was a hero’s code and a sacred conviction. But the world outside was different. At times, one had to draw a sword even when demons weren’t involved. Sometimes, the enemy wasn’t a demon, but another hero. And this situation could repeat again in the future. If she hesitated every time her sword threatened to stain with blood, she would lose what mattered most.
She reversed her grip on her sword, and her hand no longer trembled. “Dale, this is my answer.”
Her sword pierced straight into the wolf-masked man’s heart.
