Volume 2, Chapter 7: Fortis’ Courage, Part 2: What’s Necessary isn’t Power, but Courage
… I failed.
I had been too lacking in caution due to my place in the sky. When I manipulated the wings on my back to charge with all my might, I was easily dodged.
At the same time, I received an impact great enough to crush my skull.
Demons are strong. Especially in the miasma of the Demon World, they were able to gain extraordinary powers. It’s completely different from fighting them on the surface, or in the heavens.
Once they reached the highest rank… Demon Lord, I wonder how strong that would be.
I thought I had understood it.
I mean, it wasn’t my first time fighting a Demon or a Demon Lord.
I’ve defeated a number of them A number of them fell.
I never thought I could deceive the wide ranged perception abilities of a Demon Lord. The surprise attack I launched with the premise that they knew it would be coming was brilliantly evaded, and I was smashed.
Strong. Within my fading field of vision, I thought.
On top of it all, this enemy hadn’t gotten serious at all. As if it were a part of their daily life, they activated a Skill with natural movements, and without even any killing intent, they naturally intercepted me.
I can’t even imagine how many months and years they had placed into their strength. But there was quite a bit of menace packed into that single blow of theirs.
The moment I realized my failure, what flowed out from my heart wasn’t fear… an anxiety great enough to crush me.
With my vision smashed, and my five senses fading, my mind dripped out, and my soul well into darkness…
… And a Skill activated.
My memories flashed back through me.
My limits as a Hero. My defeat. Being picked up by God, and made a Valkyrie. The power I devoted my life to. The power I devoted myself to defeat Demons. The Power I devoted myself to destroy them.
On the 『Question』 that came up in my mind, I selected 『Yes』 without hesitation.
My breath returned. Light came back to my world. My smashed head, and burst brain, and my split body, and any and everything else returned to normal.
A rewind from death. No matter how many tens and hundreds and thousands of times I got a taste of it, it was an unfathomable sensation I could never accustom myself to.
Power reentered my body. I slowly stood up.
The large shadow looked down over me. Golden eyes observing me. That calm giant stood stagnant like a pillar of rock.
And of all else, he was greater than any Demon I had faced thus far, and his reaction as he looked at the scene surely wasn’t that of one seeing revival for the first time.
The Demon was a mountainous bald man, whose body height exceeded two meters. His brown skin was draped over a great armor of muscle coating his entire body. The way he held himself was closer to humanity than any other Demon K had seen before. I didn’t see him to be holding any weapons, but with that body of his, perhaps such a thing was unnecessary.
The greatest thing for me to focus on was that, despite us being a mere two meters apart, I couldn’t feel a single hint of power from him.
A Demon’s power is high. Originally, I could detect them instinctively from quite a distance. If that opponent was to be an exceptional Demon Lord, then I could even feel it kilometers away.
No matter which of the seven sins a Demon was to reign over, that should hold true.
But the Demon before my eyes was a type I’d never seen before. I had nothing in my knowledge to indicate the ability to completely erase one’s presence.
If I had acted without prior information, and without adequate caution, I wouldn’t have even noticed this man’s existence.
Is this man… what God had feared of… the calamity?
Before the unidentified man, I held up my Holy Sword.
That would have been a favorable chance for him to give a followup attack, but the man didn’t move his body at all. He folded his arms, and looked down on me, those golden eyes letting off a fiery radiance. A heavy pride clung to his mouth.
“… I see, that sword is… so you’re Serge Serenade… I never thought the real one would show up… why must everything always go astray.”
“… Hah!”
I have no words… to exchange with a Demon.
I sucked in a short breath, and gave the ground a strong kick
I poured power into the Holy Sword.
The blade was one imbued with high divinity. The strongest sword in the wor… no, perhaps just the strongest of the Human Race. But still, Demons that climbed up to the surface were one thing, but it wasn’t imbued with the power to kill a Demon in the Demon World with a single stroke.
That’s why I have to put power, Mana into it. In a time so far back I can’t even remember when it occurred, it was what I once laid hands on as a human, Hero’s power.
The pale blue edge was clad in a pale light. It was an armament to cut down darkness. The power that the frail human race had devoted itself to in order to stand against Demons. A sword of light to repell all sadness to befall them.
The Demon Lord didn’t move.
As I thrust the tip forward with the intent to rend him toward that Lord’s trunk of a body… towards the area with the highest probability of containing his Soul Core, the left of his chest, one of his log-like arms easily knocked the blade aside.
The blade lightly cut into his flesh.
Jet-black blood scattered, and before that could fall to the ground, he embedded his foot into my solar plexus.
My breath was knocked out. My internal organs were hollowed out. My brain let out a scream.
My body that had been strengthened as an Angel, the defensive barrier surrounding it was shattered in an instant, and an unpleasant creaking sound from my own bones reached my ears. My field of vision blinked on and off, before the pain tinted all before me pitch black.
For a few seconds, my body danced in the air, before I was thrown onto the ground. My entire body hurt from the pressure of the impact.
It hurts. I’m in pain. I’m scared. He’s strong. I ignored all those notions going through my mind, and thought.
I couldn’t see the instant he moved. Normally, in the moment an enemy made a move, I could see a small waver in their being, but I saw none of that at all. He was simply too fast.
He’s strong. The three Demon Lords I defeated were nothing compared to this.
I can’t even see where to start. The difference in power between us was hopeless. My dynamic vision was unable to follow him at all. And of all else, a Skill to erase his presence is… too abnormal.
“… u…”
I barely managed to swallow down the scream forming at the back of my throat.
I allocate the parts of my mind heading in a negative direction from the pain and power gap towards analyzing my resources on hand. That was, in all the years I’ve fought on, the method of fighting I’d cultivated to keep fighting without having my heart fold in on me.
Just as there were different types among Angels, the Skills a Demon could use varied by the Sins they governed. With pure physical abilities this high, speed beyond my perception, and the ability to pierce a barrier with his bare hands…
From that blow, there was but a single sin I could surmise that he held.
Superbia.
Among the various sorts of Demons around, it was the type that required the most caution.
I didn’t『Die』, so the pain won’t go away. The option isn’t coming up in my head.
He’s going easy on me. My magically strengthened body, and the barrier of an Angel, before this Demon, they were no more than walls of paper. I’ll bet he had enough power to turn me into a lump of meat in a single blow if he was up to it.
In that case, it would be a lot easier on me if he just killed me…
On the non-fatal damage assailing my body, I started to go through all options I had to preserve my continued existence, and at that moment, the man raised his voice.
Fitting his stature, it was a voice like a subterranean rumble. But opposed to that thunderous tone of his, the contents held some intelligence. That was one of the reasons Demons were something more than simple beasts.
“That authority is… 『Fortis』 I see… a troublesome one it is… no…”
The wrinkles on his brow smoothed out, and his frowning expression warped.
His voice wasn’t leaving him anymore, but he was quite clearly showing scorn.
What is he scoffing at? If he laughing at me for trying to attack knowing full well the gap between us?
No, there’s no way I’d ever understand a Demon’s thoughts.
I confirmed my damage. There was still some pain left across my body, but it won’t influence any offensive actions. In the first place, the option of retreat never existed.
I used my sword like a cane to lift myself.
My knees trembled. My arms shook. I stopped the quivering across my body, and stood up. I had no choice but to stand.
Hero was the general term to refer to those that opposed the dark. Therefore, as long as a darkness to oppose stands before me, and my own soul is undying, I must strongly impose myself on it.
… Because if I don’t… I won’t be able to fight on.
“It’s useless. Your power will never reach… me.”
I won’t reach. I know.
I could feel it from a single blow. Even if I didn’t measure his power by the disparity in our Mana, I knew well enough of the gap between us. Of all else, this Demon Lord is… simply too fast.
But still…
I remembered the days of battle I had spent.
There was never an enemy within them that wasn’t strong. I had always fought with my life at risk.
Since descending back into this Demon World, the three Lords I took on were all strong and troublesome existences holding desires strong enough to paint out all existence.
What’s necessary isn’t power, but courage. As long as that doesn’t run out, my defeat is… unthinkable.
I concentrated power to my eyes, and send malice and fighting spirit towards the Lord whose name I had yet to learn.
Black soil, dark emotions, and a miasma full of stagnant air, yet within that my blood and soul cried out. My spirit was excited.
On the edge of the horizon are three more great presences. They’re undoubtedly Demon Lord Class. I have no idea for what reason such a number of them have gathered.
I don’t know, but within my perpetual existence, within all the battle experience I had built up, I had a premonition that I was diving in to the longest battle I’ve ever faced.
Surprisingly enough, even when I directed my intent to kill at this Demon Lord, he still shows no will to fight. That reaction I had never witnessed from any Demon of Superbia thus far was too ominous to bear.
… I’m scared.
“… It doesn’t seem you understand, 『Fortis』. Courage and recklessness are… different things entirely.”
The Demon Lord sneered.
『Fortis』
The name of the authority I gained the moment I became a Valkyrie after my death. One of the Virtues governed by Angels.
He saw through that just by locking blades with me twice!?
… No… that’s wrong. What’s to be feared the most is that, even after inferring it, the Lord had yet to lose his composure.
Still with a brilliant smile on his face, his figure leisurely swayed. That brown body, that large build started jiggling about like a Slime, before it dissolved away.
The sudden fear send shivers down my spine. While his head had already disappeared, that voice continued to ring out.
“No matter how you may try to prove that brave heart of yours, no matter how many tnousands of times you’re prevailed with it… it’s all… meaningless. Serge Serenade. Valkyrie, Valkyrie, is it… ah…”
I cannot comprehend. On the unknown that didn’t correspond with any of the experience I’d built up over my life, my hands shook.
That muddily oozing body flowed over onto the ground, and as if it were an illusion, it vanished entirely.
From top down, that large build surpassing two meters had melted, and within it… a body three times smaller revealed itself.
She was full of openings. I knew that, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the one who emerged from the giant.
“Eh… that can… ‘t be…”
My breath stopped.
Upon the destruction of that muscular mass, what came out was… a young girl.
Even when my own stature wasn’t that high, she was considerably smaller than me. Unbefitting her petite build, her features were quite mature. A sharp glare, and an excessively bulging chest.
White skin, and golden eyes. On her back grew five sets of dark wings, and from her head grew platinum blond hair that reached all the way to her feet.
What she wrapped around that body looked like nothing more than unornamented, colorless old rags, but while there were some differences here and there… that figure, and presence was something I could never mistake.
… In the distant past, it was an honorable form I had happened upon before.
I only saw her for an instant. A single short moment. In the depths of my memory, behind the haze of things forgotten, all that remained of my recollection of her was that brief scene.
In my life much longer than a normal human, where a majority of my memories had been long buried, what I could still remember was… when I was brought to the heavens by the Valkyries… the moment right after.
It’s likely that the other party never took me to sight. She likely doesn’t remember. It’s because we never even exchanged words. It’s because our statuses and powers were too far removed for something on the level of conversation to be permitted.
… But I remembered. From that single glance, a powerful charisma that burned itself into my soul.
Those ten wings of light.
Of all those that enforced Iustitia in all the heavens, she was one of the scarce Sacred Lords that could be counted on two fingers.
A Lord of Lords. One who was granted the fruit of glory by the supreme God of the celestial realm.
The jet black pointed tail she hadn’t grown back then slapped messily against the ground.
“How can this… why are… you…”
“As I thought, so you’ve scene this form of mine before… Ku ku ku, should I call it a strange twist of fate…”
There was a difference. The Angel I had looked up at back then had wings that glimmered as if they were light itself that had taken shape. Her eyes weren’t gold, but a clear emerald greed. She didn’t have a tail either.
But if you looked at it the other way, besides those traits, not a single thing had changed. Her face, her body, her height, tone, expression. That blazing power that could scorch one at a glance hadn’t faded at all, no matter how many hundreds of thousands of years had passed.
… No, that’s wrong.
There’s no way that’s true!
I shook my head, and mustered up my courage.
The girl before me is one blessed by the vice of a Demon. One who would creep unseen through the shadows of the hearts of man, to devour their souls.
Word by word, I asked as if I was posing the question to myself.
“That can’t… be. What trickery is this… Demon Lord. Why have you chosen to take up such a form at this point in time…?”
“Hmm… interesting. You’re an interesting one, Valkyrie. Having seen this form, and knowing my name, you still maintain the willpower to stand before me…”
Quite different from before the girl scoffed at me in a gentle voice like the ringing of sleigh bell. Her lips curved, and her right hand directed itself at me.
That was her activation nose. Without any warning, without a single movement of Mana, light poured out. Enough to cloud over my eyes, an untainted white light.
Forgetting the burning sensation in my eyes, I unintentionally opened them ever wider. It was a Skill I was accustomed to, but that’s exactly why I couldn’t believe it.
The meaning behind it caused my body to quiver.
The overflowing light took shape, and in her hand, a single sword was created.
With the hilt, the blade and all else forged of a shadowless white, a straight sword.
Among the authorities granted to Angels, it was the power most specialized in bringing ruin to Demons.
The 『Iustitia』 Authority.
A Skill to manifest a sword of light to dispel the dark.
『Sin Breaker』
The point of the sword that looked to have been delicately folded out of light itself was directed at me. Normally, it was a sword of justice that would never have found its way to be pointed there.
On the pressure that shortened my breath, I instinctively held my Holy Sword aloft.
By assuming a stance for battle, the shaking across my body came to a stop. But the sway of my emotions wasn’t so conveniently ceased.
I have the greater reach, but something like that… doesn’t matter if I can’t hit her.
“The real… deal?”
Still, even when confronting her, what formed at my mouth was a question.
In contrast, my opponent’s lips only returned a smile.
This is no good. Even if I found myself asking it, I already knew the answer.
This woman before my eyes was undoubtedly the genuine article. This pressure, that form. No matter what illusions she were to use, it would be impossible to replicate it to this extent.
A true Angel… no, former Angel.
Holding the name of Glory, one of the heavenly messengers closest to God.
The glory that kneeled beside the throne.
Gloria Seidthroan.
“I’m also short on time, but, ku ku ku, how… pitiful. I’ll play with you just a bit. Think it an honor for your body to be receiving my blade.”
“You are… no, you should be dead…”
At the very least, that’s what I’d heard.
In a time an uncountable number of years passed, against the greatest army of the Demon World’s forces, she commanded all the forces under her command, and managed to repel them, but after confronting the enemy’s Demon Lord, her whereabouts were lost. As she never returned, she was proclaimed dead.
The death of a high class Lord made quite an echo through heaven. I remember it. No, there’s no way I could forget.
Due to the outcome of that battle, the war was brought to a temporary armistice.
I have no idea as to why she became a Demon.
In the first place, as I never associated with her, I only knew of her personality and bearing from hearsay. All I knew for sure was how extraordinary her power had been.
Do I have… any chances of victory?
… No, at the very least, I can’t go down before our blades have even locked once.
With all the power I could muster, I glared.
I built up my courage.
I remembered the reason I had been sent to the Demon World by God.
The appearance of a powerful Demon of prophecy. The birth of a calamity.
And… for some reason, the one with the highest possibility of being able to take care of it was me.
A Fallen Angel who once stood at the summit of all Angels. I doubt there’s a calamity greater than this.
I can’t leave this Lord to run free.
In that overwhelming pressure, I wrung out even more courage from the depths of my heart. I used it to coat over my fear.
The heroic power I cultivated in my battles as a Hero. That Fortis authority I laid hands on when I became a Valkyrie.
It’s fine, it’s fine.
As long as I have both of them, my defeat is… impossible.
I put power in my arms, the power of my soul. The Holy Sword was clad in an even greater light, and let off a silver blue glimmer.
And the moment I held that sword allot…
A familiar message came up in my mind.
『Serge Serenade has Died. Cause of Death: Decapitation』
My vision suddenly went dark.
I couldn’t move myself in the slightest.
What had transpired, what did she do? I couldn’t understand any of it. I couldn’t even perceive it. There wasn’t even… any pain to be felt.
A followup window faded into view.
『Do you want to try again?』
『YES / NO』
I can’t move my body. My five senses have already gone out. Within that nothingness, the message alone was all I could perceive.
The answer was… already determined.
Light returned to my eyes again. The hands that had unconsciously began to predd down on my wounds… came to a stop.
Gloria’s Sin Breaker was artlessly smeared with a slight hint of red.
The message. I should have been cut. I should have been killed.
Even so… now, I can’t even tell what part of me was injured.
“So you revived… were you able to follow that attack? Fortis… truly troublesome, and a truly worthless authority.”
“…”
My body could move perfectly.
Not even the pain that had afflicted me before I was cut remained.
I swallowed some air. I narrowed my eyes, and observed every one of her movements. I held my sword, and took a step forward.
『Serge Serenade has Died. Cause of Death: Blunt Force Trauma』
My eyes went pitch black again. It was a feeling of loss great enough to swallow my soul.
I instinctively gave my response to the message that came out.
And I felt the light again.
Gloria was a mere few meters away. If there was nothing to obstruct me, it was a space I could span in the blink of an eye.
“… Serge, what did you even come here for?”
“!?”
Black again.
Cause of Death: Decapitation.
I can’t see. I couldn’t see her sword. I couldn’t even see its afterimage.
No matter how much effort I put in, I wasn’t able to see any of it. The Gloria of my vision had always just been standing as she was. She hadn’t done a thing. That’s all it looked to me.
“Could it be that you’re under the delusion that as long as you keep having a go at it endlessly, you’ll eventually win?”
It went black. The speed was too fast.
My blackouts and revivals. It was like a flickering lantern.
And every time, I would spam YES whenever that question was to come up.
I can’t see anything. I can’t hear anything. I’m scared. My senses are going cold, and this feeling of nihility is much too great.
I compelled myself to keep reviving. Without permitting myself even a moment of waver, I forced myself to come back.
What’s necessary was never power, but a heart that couldn’t be crushed. Just as when I was human, no matter what fear, no matter what enemy I stood to face… courage. Brave Heart.
I rejected the deathful feeling of all my body’s heat being robbed away.
Right. Courage.
As long as that doesn’t break, my defeat is… impossible.
“Brave Heart. That only Skill granted to Angels that govern Fortis. With you power, no matter how many tens of thousands of times you’re to revive yourself, Heard aside, you’ll never even match up to Kanon or Zebul.”
I let her provocations slide passed.
The moment I revived I retreated a stem. But even then… black again.
It wasn’t just once, each time the Cause of Death was displayed as Decapitation. The red staining the jet black earth was gradually growing thicker.
There’s no doubt I’m being cut at. There’s no doubt about that, but…
My field of vision slowly swayed. I’m not sure if that was because I was on the verge or collapsing, or because of this crushing pressure I felt on myself.
Give up on life. Death is the inevitable result. That thought started growing in my head.
There was just one thing Gloria was wrong about.
Yes, the power bestowed upon Fortis Angels was unlimited resurrection. As long as the soul, as long as one’s courage doesn’t break, then the 『Brave Heart』 Skill was one that promised victory. And that’s all Fortis Angels were given.
Many months and years have passed since I became a Valkyrie, and attained that authority. I don’t have any fear of death left anywhere within me.
My hazy vision. As if I was being swept about by the waves, this unreliable sense or reality.
The speed at which I died was much too fast. It was so swift that I didn’t even have the time to feel any pain, and that was my only saving grace.
I revived, and in the slight moment before I died again, I poured some power into the sword in my right hand.
The Mana I could pour into it during that brief instant was truly small. But it was surely accumulating within my blade.
“… I guess you’re not going to die off so easily… If I had the time, I’d personally sing your requiem, but…”
Gloria stopped her hand. From the start, she seemed to be concerned about time. I wonder what she’s so worried about.
But it’s my chance. In that moment, I poured my all into my Holy Sword. The blade received my will, and cloaked itself in a greater light. It was no longer some faint glimmer, but a definite darkness-destroying Sword of Light.
I directed the tip towards Gloria, towards the Demon who was once the aspiration of all Angels.
Even if this body is to fall apart, the will imbued in my sword will never go out.
Regardless of what speed she may boast, what power she carries… she cannot avoid the light.
The energy gathered within my Holy Sword compressed in an instant, and converged at the end of the sword.
Without a single twitch of her brow, Gloria stared at the shimmering sword.
… And I let out my power as a Hero, the power that had taken down all darkness in my path.