Volume 5 - CH 71

The various battles across the span of the city, were gradually meeting their end.

The twin sword roared, and Thearesia’s longsword strummed.

The former Sword Saint swung the blade utilising that recoil but, Wilhelm, without even looking at that counterattack, dodged by fully reading through its trajectory.

He knew it.

Where the blade was going to come, enough that he loved it.

Wilhelm: “Ru, o~o~o~o~!”

The habits were the same. The techniques were the same.

Scorched onto his soul, within the austerity of his former self, when he shred himself, he had painted them in his mind, the sword techniques of the Sword Saint he was in pursuit of.

Defeating her, swearing to take it away from her, reaching that region, he yearned for, he yearned for, and they got scorched onto his soul.

It was the same, along with her figure, which warmed his chest.

Thearesia: “ーーーー”

Even against Wilhelm’s appeal, the crimson beautiful face did not flinch, even slightly.

As the sword aimed for its catch soundlessly, silently, emotionlessly, Wilhelm shot it down altogether.

He loved it so much, that he knew it even with his eyes closed.

That is precisely why, now he chose to love it without closing his eyes.

Wilhelm: “ーー~hk.”

ーーAbove, returned the slash, exchanged swipes, raised the blade, slashed the sword diagonally.

Accepting the blade raining down upon him, and sinking the counter attacking strike, dodging the swipe then released, gyrating his body around the leaping point if the sword, both, who had slashed diagonally across each other’s shoulders, then entwined their swords as the key performer, and shifted the counterattack.

Surpassing the blows with an elegant safeguard, impossibility arose in Thearesia’s swordsmanship.

Thearesia, who had accumulated the blows, retreated, and Wilhelm plunged into that gap without any hesitation.

“ーーーー”

For a single moment, emotion arose in Thearesia’s eyes, who was looking at the Sword Demon.

No, it was his misapprehension. His effeminate heart, had pulled out the memory of a situation of the past, exactly the same as this.

ーーWithin the sights of abundant citizens, Wilhelm had struck and defeated the lead actor of the ceremony, the 『Sword Saint』, and robbed being a swordsman from the youth named Thearesia.

The return of that situation, exactly the same, as this one.

Then, the conclusion too, would be, again.

Wilhelm: “Thearesiaーー ~hk!!”

Wilhelm attacked the longsword, flying towards her bosom.

The Sword Demon hoisted up his twin sword against it, and unable to bear the load, there occurred a fissure in the blade. But, at the same time the longsword repelled it by turning right overhead, and half of Thearesia’s body largely opened up.

Drawing a large semi circle, Wilhelm’s twin sword made its return.

Since the origin of this tryst and till this point, Thearesia, who was right in front of his eyes, produced the greatest gap yet. With the muscles of his arms swelling up, he gripped the handle of the sword, to the point it was creaking.

And wielding the attack with all of his might, now must he put an end to this inconceivable reunionーー.

ーーHe tried to, put an end to it.

Wilhelm: “ーー~hk!”

Violent passion packed his throat, with countless facial expressions floating in his eyes.

Her face when crying, her face when angry, her face when sulking, her face when smiling, floating were the beloved expressions, of the same woman.

Shaking that off completely, Wilhelm shot down the blade.

The sword slice dashed, and straight from the head to the torso of the womanーー.

“ーーーー”

There was distance in between.

The doubtful voice was not at a distance that its echo would reach Wilhelm.

Even still, he felt as if the voice was whispering right into his ear.

Looking towards him, was a man with blue eyes and red hair.

Heinkel Astrea, was observing the final moments of this battle.

Simply dazed, at the conclusion of the deadly swordsmanship of his father, Wilhelm, and his mother, Thearesia, as they aimed for each other’s life.

ーーAt that moment, the glint of his sword became dull.

Wilhelm: “ーー~hk.”

He was supposed to have had fired a decisive strike.

Pouring himself into the trends of the fight, a sword strike that was supposed to bring an end to this long dreamーー that glint dulled, giving birth to a scope for counter attacking.

“ーーーー”

Thearesia bent her body immensely, and reversing her wrist, the returning longsword rejected away the twin sword.

The sound of the two blades colliding echoed, and she disarrayed down the strike, that had promised to wound her, with her heart, technique, physique, and distanced his purpose further away from fulfillment, as sparks scattered around.

Wilhelm: “Kh…… ~hk.”

ーーWhy, did he notice.

Receiving the blow of the sword fluttering in the wind, sidestepping its weight, Wilhelm clashed head-on with his emerging doubts with all of his heart.

If he had not noticed Heinkel’s existence, or if he had ignored that existence, if he had concentrated on Thearesia, he would not be in this unsightly shape he was in now.

He had determined to dedicate his entire life, and take Thearesia away from the Sword God.

The result of that exaggerated decision, did it have to be this predicament.

Once again, started the chaining of the sound of a light sword strike.

However, the blade that had formerly turned transparent after the exchange of blows, that swords dance had already been lost.

Foreign impurities had intermingled.

Using all kinds of strengths of all possible limits, further enhancing the purity of the blade, had all been lost by the edge of the sword, which was supposed to have had swung only twice, by a single appearance on the other side.

What was left was a single strike by the aged Sword Demon at his beloved wife, in front of their son.

Without becoming a sword, without living as a Sword Demon, he was far too immature, far too deficient, as a father, as a husband, as a swordsman, as a man.

Eventually being rendered incapable of a single swing, he realised his immaturity.

He was unable to stop evil from mixing, with the essence of his swordsmanship that was pouring into the sword.

Henceforth, this result may have been inevitable.

Wilhelm: “ーー~hk!?”

Shooting down the two blades, he, immediately afterwards, jolted the longsword.

Receiving the power of the sword strike with stupid earnesty, and the strengths were being compared in the gap created by Thearesia stopping her legs– the moment he overcame the resistance and stepped ahead, the slender body in front of his eyes rotated, creating a vacuum around.

A leg appeared before him, halfway, and a gap was born.

“ーーーー”

Immediately afterwards, sense of demise approached him.

He received the extremely powerful sword slash, whose coldness could not be questioned, by gyrating his sword towards the rear with not even a millisecond of delay.

Without being able to stop the shattering attack, his sword, that had accepted it, encroached deeply into his own shoulder. Stepping as if on a foot bellow, the body that had bent forward spouted blood. His bones creaked, his muscles palpitated a lighting in his brain.

The right blade had accepted it. The left blade still remained.

With blood flowing out of the edge of his mouth, Wilhelm, with his right blade, as if carrying it on his shoulder, once again deflected Thearesia’s longsword upwards.

Without any inaccuracies, Thearesia’s longsword was raised overhead.

At the same time, the sword fell out of Wilhelm’s right hand. He did not mind it. If his right hand was now free, he must dedicate all his strength into the remaining left blade and strike. 

With his left blade, he smashed the blow into Thearesia, behind.

His right drew a trajectory, and pierced upright into Thearesiaーー,

“ーーーー”

Sparks scattered.

And a sound echoed, a high-pitched report.

The weight of the blade in his hand was halved, and Wilhelm, with his own errors, who had countlessly recognised his own weakness, once again noticed it.

The moment he struck Thearesia with the attack, Wilhelm chose to act unconsciously.

The blade gripped in his left, to strike it by rotating it towards the left or towards the left.

A slight, mere, meagre difference.

But at the same time, for those two, who had attained the extremity of swordsmanship, it was a lethal variation.

If he chose velocity, left, or if he opted for strength then right.

After getting caught up in that choice, if he realised that he had erred in that action, things could still be helped.

Wilhelm, deciding whether or not he should look at Thearesia straight up, in that single instant, lost his way.

Accepting the Sword Demon’s attack, was a single swing released by Thearesia’s grip.

Catching hold of it while it was mid-air, Thearesia cut into the trajectory of the attack.

The moment she accepted the sword, and engaged with it while standing still, she swung it down with immense force. That cracked the belly of Wilhelm’s sword, and rejected the steel without facing any resistance.

The longsword fragmented his sword, and Wilhelm perceived the loss of his special weapon. Instantly gripping to the handle of the fractured sword, he prepared for the following attack, which was in his instinct as a swordsman.

However, that preparedness would bear fruit, if only he differed in purity as a swordsman.

In that respect, her self, in front of his eyes, was the worst possible opponent.

The Sword Demon who lost his sword, and the 『Sword Saint』 loved by the Sword God.

That difference was clear, there was no necessity for mentioning it.

ーーIn the juncture when he forgot to even blink his eyes, Wilhelm saw the longsword pierce through his right leg.

“ーーーー”

It was a sword so beautiful, he almost got charmed by it.

The blade penetrated into the joint of the aged swordsman’s right leg, and the edge of the sword was contaminated by minimal blood.

Without any unneeded destruction, right through the gap between muscle fibres and nerves, taking away only the functionality of the leg, it was the excellence of preeminent swordsmanship.

The lack of resistance was such that it seemed as if the blade was only swiping through water.

With that performance being held upon his own right leg, Wilhelm’s back shuddered.

Was that feeling admiration, vexation, infatuation, the person concerned did not know, which one complied.

What he did know, was only the truth of his defeat being thrust into​ his face.

Wilhelm: “Gh, ugh…… ~hk.”

As the blade hid in his right leg and slid through, the height of his knees was divided.

Just as when the longsword had pierced in, as his flesh was drawn out soundlessly, Wilhelm groaned at the delayed pain and crumbled down.

As blood flooded out of his leg’s wound, his lower body was rendered powerless.

If the power of the 『Divine Protection of Death God』 was invoked, any type of healing magic may he used, but it will not heal. If the wielder of the Divine Protection was close, then the closer the distance, the more it’s effectivity increased, no matter how slight the wound, it became a curse that eroded away life, and coerced endless bloodshed upon the victim.

“ーーーー”

The wound on Wilhelm’s right leg, was not so slight to be called a shallow wound. It was a gash that could be life threatening if it was neglected, and the 『Divine Protection of Death God』 was obliged to, and refused all recovery.

It seemed as if the deadline for his life, had been set for a period excessively short.

Wilhelm: “……Regrettable.”

As his brain was being scorched by the pain, he leaked out his grief before his anguish.

The sense of pain was stimulating a scream without any interruption, but Wilhelm revealed it on his face only by furrowing his eyebrows and nothing else.

He was not frivolously holding it back, or affixing it to his willpower.

The sharp stimulus upon his body, no matter what, did not let his heart shelter from the shade of darkness.

While despair, despondency​, and his own cowardliness and worthlessness was being scorched into his soul, how much meaning could physical pain hold for this aged swordsman.

“ーーーー”

Dropping the sword in his hand, Wilhelm put his hand on the mouth of the wound.

The bleeding was supposed to leak away his life but, the defeated had no intention of maintaining distance without any disgrace. However, according to etiquette, he must not meet his end by something like blood loss.

He had fought as a swordsman, he had opposed as a swordsman, he had been defeated as a swordsman.

Then, the life of the defeated, was to be taken away by the sword of the victor.

Wilhelm: “Thearesia, I am……”

Thearesia: “ーーーー”

The female swordsman of crimson, with her longsword on being carried on her shoulder, was looking down towards Wilhelm.

In those eyes, truly, there was no deep emotion present. Without remembering anything till the end, and continuing to not remember anything, she was the death god of the sword who was going to reap Wilhelm’s life.

He looked up at the beautiful face, to the point he was fascinated by it.

Thearesia, silently, swung the sword in front of Wilhelm. When that sword would come down, Wilhelm’s life, too, would come to an end.

Butーー,

Wilhelm: “All alone, never……!”

The moment the longsword descended, Wilhelm extended his right hand. Over there, the fragment of the twin swordーー the sword Thearesia had cast aside, was lying there.

Wilhelm picked it up with his fingers, and floundered, unable to accept the moment of his death, till the end of the end.

His defeat, that remained.

That could not be helped.

But her, now, he must not render Thearesia, her, alone.

Unable to stop his wife, who was being made to swing the sword against her will, he could not allow her to advance towards Crusch, whom he was greatly indebted towards, or Subaru and the rest.

If his life, being burned, was insufficient, then he did not mind the destruction of his soul after death.

ーーHowever, the brandish of that resolution was.

Thearesia: “ーーーー”

Wilhelm: “Thearesia……?”

Keeping her sword held tight, Thearesia leapt a great distance backwards.

The blade he held in his right hand, she was a distance that its swipe would not reach her. At a position which Wilhelm, who had his leg injured, would not be able to reach, Thearesia slightly inclined her neck.

Emotionless eyes, seeing a terribly empty colour in them, Wilhelm, for the first time, got frightened.

That fear, was a fear that arose in his instinct, in Wilhelm’s instincts as a swordsman.

Supporting himself with the sword, Wilhelm stood up feeling as if he was crunching stones. With no room for grasping his wound, his burden spanned, furthermore, his blood gushed out.

The cobblestone subsequently, after the overflow of fresh blood, turned into the colour of red, and while pulling the thread of that blood, Wilhelm pursued Thearesia’s back.

Distant. Too distant.

Slow. Too slow.

Once again, Wilhelm did not make it. Once again, Wilhelm could not reach it.

Wilhelm: “Hugh…… ~hk.”

Thearesia: “ーーーー”

Thearesia’s longsword drew an arc, and the knight sword of Heinkel, who had tugged in his shoulders, accepted it.

With not even the slightest stagnation, and Heinkel’s knight sword left his hands too quickly, raising a shrill sound as it bounced on the cobblestone.

Heinkel: “S-Stop…… Please stop, m-mom……. ~hk.”

Rendered unarmed, the frightened Heinkel fell on his bottom at that spot. Flailing around his limbs desperately, Heinkel tried to escape, as if crawling.

However, his moving fingers, his terrified heart, Thearesia’s emotionless eyes, tied his mind and body to fear, and he was rendered almost completely immobile at the spot.

His throat was parched, he wiped off the heavy amounts of cold sweat he was perspiring, Heinkel made a pallid face.

There had possibly been some incontinence there as well. However​, having been robbed of the composure to be embarrassed at that, Heinkel stared at the tip of the longsword hoisted up.

ーーAs if slicing the moon, the longsword extended straight towards the heavens.

At the brink of his life, Wilhelm witnessed the sight of his wife slash their son to his death in front of his eyes.

He raised his voice. It did not reach. 

He stretched his hand. It did not reach.

Wilhelm: “Thearesiaーー!!”

No strength remained in the merely shouting voice of the Sword Demon, who had been unable to dedicate his everything into the sword.

Heartlessly, the longsword was swung to cut off Heinkel’s​ lifeーー.

???: “ーーThat’s as far as it goes.”

That voice suddenly, but distinctly, cut into the tension, which seemed to be stinging.

With a dignified tone and not a single fragment of vacillation in it, it wielded no pardon. Those who heard it were struck with the sense of the presence of an overwhelming existence, and it was only natural to follow its intentions.

Wilhelm, Heinkel, and even Thearesia halted all movement.

Ahead of the line of sight of the three, stood a single youth.

Blazing red hair, like fire, perfectly clear, glittering blue eyes which had captured the sky.

Even while his white outfit bad been contaminated by blood and mud, the figure, standing straight, had no need at all for words to decorate him aside from heroic.

The youth, slowly, continued to advance towards the place.

In that hand, was a scabbard with the engravings of deep wounds, and a knight sword unsheathed from that scabbard.

With the sword blade polished to the point of abnormality, he clutched to the Dragon Sword Reid.

ーーThe voice of the laughter of the Sword God, resonated raucously in the ears of the Sword Demon.