Kays Translations

Chapter 36: An Elf Named Yelquq, Part Two

The Mana Eater hesitated, confused by its master’s command.

“Eat them,” Yelquq repeated.

The creature bared its fangs.

The sound of flesh tearing and bone cracking echoed across the hill. It devoured Yelquq’s right arm, then his left.

“Aaaaah! It hurts! What magnificent despair! My arms—it’s eating them together with the pain!”

Blood poured from the wounds. Yelquq’s voice weakened, while the Mana Eater’s body began to swell.

Ren understood the intent. The elven seals had been engraved so deeply that they reached the bones of Yelquq’s arms. Merely removing skin would never have freed him, so he had sacrificed the limbs themselves.

But it was not enough.

The Mana Eater’s growth stopped almost immediately.

Yelquq looked down at the remains of his arms.

“So even that was insufficient. What hateful seals.”

Part of the restraint had been destroyed, but most of it still remained. For an instant, Ren thought the elf’s final gamble had failed.

“Then I have nothing left to regret.”

Roots surged from beneath Yelquq and pierced his own chest. Something ruptured inside him with a wet sound.

(He’ll die before he can do anything else.)

If Yelquq died, the creature under his control should disappear. Yet a dim green light began to shine from the wound.

“Such an expensive potion… and it buys me only this little time!”

Using roots in place of his lost hands, Yelquq forced a potion directly into his body. It could not save him. It merely kept his ruined body alive for a few more moments.

That was all he wanted—enough time to kill Ren and Licia.

He accepted agony severe enough to destroy a sane person’s mind for that single purpose.

The Mana Eater crawled to the corpse of its companion and devoured it.

This time its growth did not stop.

Its body expanded more than tenfold, muscles swelling beneath black skin and thick veins. New limbs pushed from its torso, and a pair of enormous wings unfurled. Fangs longer than a horse protruded from its mouth.

It resembled a dragon from Legend of the Seven Heroes.

(B-rank… perhaps even higher.)

The transformed monster exhaled fire and fixed Ren with its gaze.

“I’m still alive,” Yelquq whispered, supported upright by the roots through his chest. “There is still time. Kill them.”

The creature vanished from Ren’s sight.

A heartbeat later, a blow struck his side. His ribs creaked and he flew across the hillside, gouging a trench through the earth.

Pain unlike anything he had known filled his body. Before he could recover, moonlight flashed across the Mana Eater’s fangs. Ren barely avoided its jaws, only for one rigid arm to smash into the side of his head.

He was being played with.

(What kind of seal produced this much change when only a part of it broke?)

The Yelquq Ren knew from the game had always fought while sealed. Before he could attempt anything this extreme, the dean of the Imperial Military Academy defeated him. This death-bound release was entirely unknown.

The creature struck again. Ren caught the blow on the Iron Magic Sword, but the force hurled him away as though the blade offered no resistance.

He rolled to a stop beside Licia.

“Licia…”

She lay panting, her face pale with fever.

Ren crawled toward her and tried to rise.

“Move.”

His body refused. The escape, the lesser monsters, and the Mana Eater’s attacks had exhausted him completely.

If he could delay only a little longer, Yelquq might die first. The potion was only postponing the inevitable. But even buying a few seconds seemed beyond reach.

“It is over,” Yelquq declared through a fading laugh.

The gigantic Mana Eater leaped into the air and opened its jaws above Ren and Licia.

Then a faint voice reached Ren.

“Thank you.”

Licia’s hand found his. White light surrounded them, easing the agony in his body.

“Licia…?”

“Thank you for protecting me.”

Sweat covered her brow, and her complexion was deathly pale, but she still managed a dignified smile.

With all her remaining strength, she pressed her hand against his and sent warmth into him.

“I’ll give you everything I have left. A saint can do that much.”

The last of her Sacred Magic flowed into Ren.

“Please… at least you must survive.”

Her voice tried to sound cheerful, but the effort failed. Licia lost consciousness again, and cracks spread through the white veil around them.

She wanted him to flee while her remaining power lasted.

Ren’s legs trembled. He was terrified of dying. He knew the Mana Eater could kill him in an instant.

Yet he could not leave her.

He had spent years trying to avoid Licia Clausel and the fate described in Legend of the Seven Heroes. He had feared that meeting her would pull him toward the same future as the game’s Ren Ashton. Now he stood ready to die protecting her in an event that had never appeared in the story.

The absurdity almost made him laugh.

“I’m sorry, Licia.”

He forced himself to his feet. The fresh Sacred Magic allowed him to rise faster than before, but his posture was unsteady.

“I’m not leaving without you.”

The Mana Eater itself was frightening. Losing his nerve and abandoning Licia frightened him more.

(When did I become this reckless?)

“I didn’t come this far to lose now.”

The veil shattered.

The Mana Eater’s arm descended with enough force to crush them both. Ren raised the Iron Magic Sword, pouring Licia’s final gift and every remaining fragment of his strength into the block.

The impact sank his feet into the ground and cracked the earth around him.

“This isn’t over!”

With a roar, Ren deflected the creature’s arm.

For an instant, even the transformed Mana Eater recoiled.

The cost was immediate. Ren’s arms fell numb. His knees gave way, and he collapsed beside Licia.

“Move! What did I train for if I can’t move now?”

His body would not answer. His legs lost all strength, and he fell forward.

As he did, the wrist bearing his bracelet came to rest against Licia’s chest.

A white radiance shone from within her body.

The bracelet responded.

Ren stared at the familiar list of magic swords. A new entry had appeared.

????? (Level 1: 1/1)

Why had an unnamed sword appeared now? Why was its proficiency already complete? The questions came one after another, but there was no time to consider any of them.

The Mana Eater recovered and roared.

Yelquq’s fading laughter rang across the hill.

“Do not steal my final pleasure!”

Ren pulled Licia beneath him, trying to shield her with his own body. If nothing else, perhaps he could buy one-tenth of a second—long enough for Yelquq’s potion to fail.

Tears burned his eyes at the uselessness of the gesture.

Then the unknown entry glowed.

(Anything will do. If it can protect her, come to me.)

The Mana Eater lunged.

“I don’t care what kind of sword you are. Just let me protect her!”

A blinding white flash erupted around Ren and Licia, threaded by golden lightning. Within it floated the silhouette of a long sword.

Ren seized the hilt.

White wind spiraled upward, forming a pillar of light that pierced the sky.

Yelquq stared in disbelief. The Mana Eater shut its eyes against the radiance.

The monster corpses scattered across the hill dissolved into particles of light. The giant Mana Eater followed, its jaws breaking apart before they could reach Ren.

Everything was drawn into the shining current and carried upward.

“Impossible…” Yelquq whispered. “What is that…?”

The dying elf dissolved as well, vanishing before he could understand what had happened.

At last, the pillar thinned. The remaining light flowed back into Ren and Licia, filling their damaged bodies with warmth and vitality.

Ren could no longer see the mysterious magic sword. It had vanished from his hand as suddenly as it appeared. He had no strength to question where it had gone, why it had been nameless, or how it had destroyed everything around them.

Only Licia mattered.

He placed trembling fingers near her mouth and felt her breath.

“Thank goodness…”

Relief softened his face.

Then Ren’s consciousness disappeared.

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