Chapter 185: The Second Option
Ramin Solost Muel also knew well about the chosen ones. She had met one in person and used to think that she might be one in the past, but of course, she then thought it was closer to a delusion for a longer time.
‘I was chosen?’
The spirit of Demonic Magic disappeared without a trace, as suddenly as when it had appeared and spoken to her in her mind. However, the sensation still lingered in Ramin's body. It flowed up her fingertips and toes, climbed up her spine, and swept up through her mind.
It seemed that Mahim was unaware of Ramin’s change.
‘On purpose.’
It was customary for veterans to keep the gifts they received hidden because learning about their gifts would give the opponent the ability to respond accordingly. And it seemed that the spirit of Demonic Magic had given Ramin her gift secretly for the same reason.
'I'll end this with the next strike.'
Ramin didn't even have enough energy or blood to continue the battle.
She dodged the Minotaur Mahim’s ax and pushed her sword into Mahim's chest.
‘Things aren’t so difficult until now.’
So far, diving into Mahim's space hadn’t been difficult. However, she couldn't avoid the following attack. The iron club came down, and the short spear pierced through. Even if she managed to block one of them, she would have to take the other with her body.
'But this time is different.'
Ramin spread out her left hand.
Pzzt…!
The air cried out as sparks jumped from her fingertips.
Ramin pressed her left hand against Mahim's chest.
“...!”
Then Mahim abruptly stopped, feeling an excruciating pain spreading through their entire body, but still tried to move somehow.
‘This kind of pain…is barely enough…!’
However, the pain was separate to Mahim's will.
Nerve signals in the body consisted of minute electrical currents. Therefore, if a stronger current entered from the outside of the body, the process of transmitting nerve signals would be disrupted, and the nerves could misinterpret this current, leading to contractions or stiffness. And the muscles making up the heart were no different.
Mahim's heart stopped. The blood that the heart had been pushing passed through the arteries, through the tiny blood vessels, hesitated to pass through the veins, and finally stopped exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide. Then the muscles that had moved to expand the lungs stopped taking in oxygen. Mahim's visual nerves transmitted the light of the blue sky for the last time, and then their vision became dark.
‘...But it is not time for I, veteran Mahim, to die yet!’
Veteran Mahim somehow managed to endure the pain and stand up. The touch of the Angry One reached Mahim's body. There was a power within them that couldn’t be explained by reason and logic alone. But Ramin didn't miss her chance.
‘My teacher told me to check one more time even if I think my enemy is dead.’
Her sword wasn’t so shabby that it couldn’t cut through a scarecrow standing still.
As Mahim's fingers twitched again, Ramin's sword struck in between Mahim's helmet and chest armor. Mahim kneeled, the armor pieces clanging against each other, and Mahim's head fell to the ground. Ramin kicked Mahim in the chest, which caused the Minotaur to fall backward. Blood poured out and covered the envelope of the ship.
Ramin swallowed her saliva. The hunger and thirst she had momentarily forgotten struck her again.
‘No, I can’t.’
Ramin shook her head and looked around her. There were still the noises of people fighting below, but up here, the only ones left were Ramin and the Wyvern holding its eye in pain, not even knowing that its owner was dead.
‘I only killed someone I had to, and it's my prey, so it wouldn’t matter, right?’
Ramin recalled her past. She had traveled from the western continent to the Black Scale mainland and then to the southern continent, where she had spent the longest period of time. This was because law and order was the most inadequate there.
Still, Ramin tried to live righteously according to her teacher’s teachings. She didn't kill innocent people, and if she could afford to, she helped those less fortunate than herself. That was also the will of Night Sky.
But Ramin didn't think of herself as a completely pure person. There was a time when a robbery occurred at an inn in a settlement. As Ramin entered the inn, the robber who had stolen the innkeeper's money pushed Ramin and ran away. She then chased after the robber for the innkeeper on the condition that she wouldn't have to pay a week's rent. The robber was fast and managed to run to the outskirts of the settlement, but he wasn’t as fast as Ramin. The man, panting, turned around and drew his sword. He was a young man who hadn't even grown out of his youthful appearance. Ramin said she would let him go if he just returned the stolen money. However, the young man was nervous and told Ramin to get lost.
At that moment, Ramin had a choice. One was to calmly persuade him with words. Approaching an armed person empty-handed was dangerous, but perhaps she could talk him out of it. But Ramin chose the second option. She also drew her sword and told him that if he didn't want to die, he should come at her. Then the robber attacked, and Ramin killed the robber.
The reason this memory remained in Ramin's mind was because she was thirsty and hungry at the time. She had a craving for blood. Even though she had the option to make a different choice, she had provoked the robber to fill her stomach.
'What's wrong with that? Everyone does whatever it takes to survive, don't they?'
Ramin suddenly came to her senses.
Bang!
It was because of a gunshot.
The leather that made up the envelope didn’t absorb the pouring Minotaur blood, and the blood formed a pool instead. In that pool of blood was the reflection of her own face, as she was kneeling and on her hands like a beast above the dead body.
“Oh no, Ramin, are you okay?”
Ramin raised her head. Gorgota Falu was crawling up the envelope. Then she realized that the Wyvern that had been struggling behind her had collapsed. Gorgota had shot and killed the Wyvern after seeing the Wyvern while climbing up. Ramin then got to her feet, hoping Gorgota hadn’t seen her panting with her tongue out over the pool of blood.
“Gorgota?”
Fortunately, when Ramin looked, Gorgota seemed distracted with the climb up the envelope.
"I came up because the lack of news worried me."
"I'm fine. What's the situation below?"
"This is the first time I've been through a war like this in my whole military life."
Ramin thought that Gorgota was joking when a giant flying moray was mentioned, but as she walked toward the edge of the envelope, she could see the battle happening around the airship.
Mazdari lured the giant moray that swam through the air like a fish in water, pushing and pulling it with his magic while triggering explosions. But regardless, the giant moray easily resisted Mazdari’s magic and tried to approach the airship.
"That moray seems to have been created to resist Mazdari’s magic."
"Resist Mazdari’s magic?"
"Yes. Usually it isn’t easy to resist magic just because it's a giant guardian. But…”
Ramin looked back.
"Then we should use a different method other than magic."
Gorgota was puzzled at first but understood after hearing Ramin's explanation.
“I’ll try to tell Mazdari.”
“No, even though it looks like that, a guardian of the Angry One probably has intelligence. So it should know how to get angry as well."
"Pardon?"
Ramin turned around and picked up the head of the Minotaur, Mahim.
Then she went back to the edge of the envelope and shouted, "You ugly giant moray! Look here and see who died!"
The giant moray, which had been chasing Mazdari, appeared to turn its head slowly. It was a kind of optical illusion as the movements of large objects appeared slower from a distance.
Ramin then shouted again, “Your stupid ox-head leader, Mahim, is dead! If you don't take Mahim away, we'll offer them to our Night Sky’s sacrificial altar!"
Bewildered, Gorgota said, “We don’t use people as sacrifices at the pantheon!”
"No, I know. It's just a provocation."
"...Oh, is that so? I just wanted to make sure."
"What kind of person did you see me as?"
While the two talked, the giant moray started approaching the envelope, or more specifically, Ramin.
Mazdari seemed very bewildered. But this time, the giant moray ignored Mazdari's interference and attacks and headed toward the top of the airship.
Noting that her provocation had worked, Ramin said, "Well, it looks like it's hungry now. Here, take it."
Ramin threw Mahim’s head as hard as she could. It spun and fell down the gap between Ramin and the giant moray.
-...How dare you!
The giant moray increased its speed.
"Are you angry because you couldn’t catch it? This time, make sure you do."
Ramin reached for the backpack she had hidden behind her. It was Mahim's. Inside was dynamite, which had been packed to blow up the airship's envelope. Ramin grabbed the backpack’s straps and threw it as hard as she could again.
Ramin then shouted to Gorgota, "Shoot!"
"It's too close!" Gorgota aimed and sternly replied. If the dynamite was detonated at too close a distance, both of them could get caught in the explosion, and the airship could suffer some damage too.
'But if it falls too far...'
The backpack drew a parabola and fell toward the giant moray's head. However, by the time it had fallen that far, the backpack appeared so small that it was barely visible.
Bang!
Ramin immediately realized what had happened when she saw Gorgota reloading. Gorgota had missed.
'In that case...'
Ramin stretched out her left hand. A thin blue current connected her fingertips to the backpack containing the dynamite.
Then their vision flickered.
***
“Are you awake now?”
Ramin opened her eyes. As she looked up, she saw the airship’s envelope. She was on the deck. Ramin got up while shaking her head in dizziness.
"No. My head is..."
"It’s because you used Demonic Magic. Normally, you should smoke herbs to replenish yourself, but since you were unconscious, I used a temporary solution."
Ramin looked to the side and saw dry leaves burning.
Mazdari said, "Well done. You did better than I expected."
"Um, what about the giant moray?"
"It didn't die from your attack, but it lost most of its resistance to magic. Thanks to that, I was able to kill it."
"Oh, that's a relief."
Mazdari remained silent for a moment, as if thinking about something.
Then Ramin said with a slight sense of uneasiness, “What is it?”
"It's not necessarily a relief."
"What's wrong?"
"It damaged the airship’s envelope with its final resistance."
"What?"
"Right now, the Thunderstrider is crashing."
"What, how are you saying that so calmly?"
Ramin quickly got up. As she did, she saw soldiers and Wizards running around on the deck. Then looking over the railing, she could see the ground rapidly getting closer and closer.
Mazdari said in a detached manner, "Everything that flies in the sky eventually falls."
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