Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 36 – The Sword Demon [Part 2]
“His Majesty’s…”
For the first time, the Sword Demon spoke.
“…side—!”
It spread its four arms like two pairs of wings and charged with enormous strides.
In the blink of an eye, it reached them. Ren stepped into its path.
What followed made both of them doubt their eyes. Every crimson greatsword left layers of dark-red light in its wake. Each swing produced a sound like a curse of resentment, impossible to identify as either a man’s or a woman’s voice.
The weapons were unquestionably reinforced by some form of magic.
(Then I’ll shear it away—!)
Ren raised the Iron Magic Sword and used Star Slaying. The impact broke his stance for an instant, but a small portion of the dark-red wave surrounding the blade vanished.
“GWOOOOOOOOOH!”
The other three swords were different. Star Slaying had affected only one, and barely at that. The Sword Demon’s pressure continued to increase, and the Iron Magic Sword shattered before it could endure a second blow.
Ren ground his teeth. Licia tried to leap toward the crimson blade bearing down on him.
The general’s savagery exceeded everything they had imagined and crushed them beneath it.
“GOH! GAAAAH!”
Its brutal voice accompanied every sweep of a greatsword.
Even with Licia using Sacred Magic at full strength—power that made it feel as though they had borrowed their bodies from several years in the future—they had achieved nothing more than prolonging their lives.
That was all the raging violence allowed.
Ren had not surrendered.
Even so, he was certain they could not win if the battle continued this way.
(If only I had that…)
The proof of a Sword Saint within the Mighty Sword Style—that technique should have been capable of inflicting grievous damage on the Sword Demon.
Yet it remained impossibly distant, with no hint that he could wield it.
He knew what kind of technique it was and what power it possessed, but imagining every detail changed nothing.
“GWOOOOOOOOH!”
“Guh—!”
Ren blocked another descending greatsword, and the Iron Magic Sword shattered again.
As fragments of the black-iron blade scattered across his vision, sweat ran down his cheek. Beset by the many emotions of a person standing on the edge of death, Ren clenched his teeth.
He saw Licia fighting nearby, worry written across her face, and chose to gamble.
“—Burn it all away!”
The air split open. The hilt of the Flame Magic Sword emerged, radiating overwhelming pressure. Ren drew it and cut upward in the same motion, engulfing the Sword Demon in the Dragon King’s flames.
“—!?”
These were not the flames Ren had wielded in the forest.
They were gold.
With this power, he could contend even with a general of the Demon King’s army.
“Licia!”
“Yes!”
The Sword Demon swept its arms in an attempt to escape the blaze. With much of its attention fixed on the Flame Magic Sword, Licia slipped within its reach once more.
A greatsword moved to stop Byakuen from driving into the creature’s waist, but flames erupted behind Licia and struck it aside.
The Sword Demon immediately reached out and seized Byakuen itself.
“That will hurt!”
White smoke rose from its hand with the hiss of boiling water.
The Sword Demon groaned, yet mana still blazed in place of eyes within its helm. The dark-red wave returned to the greatsword almost at once.
Ren and Licia alone continued to spend strength.
Even when the Flame Magic Sword stripped the greatswords of their reinforcement, the power immediately returned.
“To His Majesty’s side—!”
The Sword Demon swung all four blades and unleashed one powerful spell after another.
The floor collapsed behind Ren and Licia. Debris wrapped in ominous mana flew through the air, and the mountain rose in jagged formations like the Tsurugi Rocks of Ashton village. Crimson lightning raced across the polished stone and leaped at them with every swing of the greatswords.
“Licia, I have a plan.”
Ren stopped her as she began to create another wall with Sacred Magic.
“What should I do?”
“Support me with Sacred Magic just as you have been.”
“All right. And afterward?”
“We endure until the moment to strike. I’ll risk my life to create an opening, so whatever happens to me, concentrate only on piercing the Sword Demon.”
“…We stake everything on one final blow.”
Unless Licia conserved her strength, neither of them had a future. They had no other choice.
The Shield Magic Sword was also poorly suited to attacks arriving from so many directions.
“I’ll support you. No matter what, I won’t let you fall.”
For the first time, Licia felt that Ren had truly relied upon her. She had never imagined he would say such words to her.
Joy could wait. If she allowed herself to celebrate now, she would die.
The Sword Demon’s attacks closed in. Trusting Ren without the slightest hesitation, Licia invoked Sacred Magic and prepared for the decisive moment.
“HAAAAAAAAH!”
Ren swept the Flame Magic Sword sideways. Fire consumed the flying rubble without leaving ash.
A small shard grazed his cheek and drew blood. Lightning arrived before he could blink, but he brought down the Flame Magic Sword and used Star Slaying to shear it away.
The assault continued.
The Sword Demon raised all four wave-covered blades at once, gathering more mana than ever before.
“OOOOOOOOOOH!”
As if answering Ren’s roar, it bellowed and swung.
The waves around the four blades joined, spiraled together, and became an immense sphere of light that shot toward them.
In that instant, Ren understood that Star Slaying could not stop it.
Not even with Licia’s current support.
Then he felt warmth at his back and glanced over his shoulder.
“Ren.”
Licia smiled.
She believed him without doubting a single word.
“…Wait for me just a little longer.”
“I will. Don’t worry about me. Look only ahead.”
So what if he knew he could not block it?
So what if he could not yet wield the technique of a Sword Saint?
Ren pictured Edgar—and the special battle art used by a Mighty Sword practitioner who also wielded magic—and tightened his grip.
What he had learned was nowhere near complete. His training had produced only the faintest sense of success. But Licia’s power had raised every part of him far beyond its usual limits.
If he failed, both of them would die.
Therefore, he would succeed.
The sphere of light had already reached them when Ren raised the Flame Magic Sword.
“—!?”
It was the most beautiful fire in the world.
Golden sparks shone like diamond dust. A wall of gold appeared before Ren and Licia and erased the Sword Demon’s attack without leaving a trace.
“…You really are far too incredible.”
She had trusted him. That did not mean she could not be astonished.
Holding a sword wrapped in golden fire, Ren began to advance.
“Licia!”
“Yes. Let’s go!”
“Right! We’re ending this, Sword Demon!”
Golden flames bound the creature’s legs. Its armor did not melt, but the black surface slowly lost its sheen.
The Sword Demon drew its arms inward as though embracing its upper body and pulled the mana and rubble around the plaza toward itself once more. Ren burned away everything that approached Licia, yet the debris and crystallized mana never ceased.
Their enemy had served as a general of the Demon King’s army.
Stopping one great attack did not guarantee there would be no second.
Licia moved to take its back, but crimson lightning made her stagger. Freed from the threat behind it, the Sword Demon whirled all four greatswords.
It appeared to understand that Ren was its greatest enemy. Even if Licia attacked from behind, it would kill him first.
The Flame Magic Sword shattered, leaving Ren exposed.
“Guh—!”
The loss of mana drove a spike of pain through his head, but he desperately summoned the sword again.
He was using one great technique after another, yet he remained hopelessly outmatched by an opponent that filled the air with rubble, lightning, and deadly waves.
One boy could not continue holding back a succession of natural disasters.
“You—!”
Ren almost laughed at the absurdity of it.
Why had he and Licia been thrown into this? He wanted to complain to the broken divine statues, but he did not. He had not given up, and any moment spent complaining was a moment not spent finding a way to survive.
He fought while retreating, but the Sword Demon had already surpassed even his movements.
It shut down every action before Ren could release another flame.
(Don’t make that face.)
Beyond the Sword Demon’s back, Ren saw the anguish on Licia’s face.
It looked as though she believed he was about to lose. Even if that was not what she thought, she could not stop fearing for him.
The sight constricted his chest.
Whatever had caused this situation, Ren was unquestionably the reason Licia wore that expression in the middle of battle.
That was why he hated it.
He hated the enemy that was trampling him so completely.
Ren glared at the Sword Demon with sharpened eyes.
“—I stopped fearing death a long time ago.”
He summoned the Shield Magic Sword and extended the arm that carried it.
Layer after layer of magical shields formed. Ren planted his feet, stopped retreating, and thrust them forward. The newly summoned Flame Magic Sword waited in his other hand.
Until now, exhaustion and tactics had kept him from summoning two swords at once.
“OOOOOOOOOOH!”
“Did you think you could kill the man in front of you so easily—Sword Demon?”
“…!?”
The contradiction of fearing an obviously weaker enemy seized the Sword Demon.
Even so, it swung with the sole intention of cutting Ren apart.
The first blow shattered layer after layer of magical shields. The second broke through the Shield Magic Sword and carved a single line from Ren’s neck across his chest and abdomen.
(I’m alive. That’s enough.)
He could not imagine how severe the wound was. His face twisted in pain, but he spun like a top and evaded the third blow.
One remained—the fourth and final greatsword.
Ren met it with every last measure of flame he possessed.
Locked blade to blade, the golden fire melted the greatsword away. Carried by the momentum, Ren brought the Flame Magic Sword down toward the Sword Demon’s shoulder.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
Ren could not tell whether the sound was agony or a battle cry.
Only one fact mattered: he had taken one of the Sword Demon’s arms.
Energy poured from the severed limb and stained the surrounding air black.
Ren landed seated on the pavement and smiled defiantly. The Sword Demon looked down at him and raised another greatsword.
“Please… don’t.”
Licia’s voice broke with anguish.
Ren’s vision blurred from blood loss, yet he still tried to strike back.
Licia rushed to stop the Sword Demon, but even her skill could not match it without Ren holding the front. Without him, she was frighteningly vulnerable.
She fell and crawled across the stones some distance away, looking at Ren as he looked back.
Blood poured from the terrible wound across his abdomen. An ordinary person could only have waited for death. The remaining Sacred Magic within him was likely all that kept him alive.
“…Stop.”
Licia clenched gravel in her fist and screamed through her tears as the greatsword descended toward Ren.
“Don’t hurt the person precious to me anymore!”
There was light.
Wings like panes of glass, wrapped in silver-white radiance, spread from Licia’s back.
The sacred presence reached Ren before he could understand what he was seeing, stealing his voice.
The enormous wings resembled row upon row of transparent glass.
Particles of light reached the Sword Demon and began dissolving its armor. Flash after flash followed. The creature forgot Ren and swung its greatswords to stop them.
“G-GOOOOH…!?”
It could not deflect the light. The flashes pierced its body.
When the same light touched Ren, his wounds vanished as though they had never existed. Even his strength began to return.
“…OOOH…”
Licia’s assault did not stop.
Despite his astonishment, Ren noticed one fact.
Something was wrong.
He looked at Licia.
“Licia…?”
She had curled inward and clutched her head in both hands. The flashes continued to pour from her wings as though acting against her will.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
Licia was in a white space.
She drifted there curled like an unborn child in its mother’s womb.
From somewhere came the faint ringing of bells—the same sound she and Ren had heard before wandering into the seal.
“…………”
Where was she drifting?
She understood nothing and could not resist. The presence of the Ren she loved seemed to be growing distant, and that terrified her.
“…………”
She could not speak. She could not even change her posture to look around.
Eventually, she began to feel someone calling her. She did not know who, but that presence was trying to take her somewhere. The voice seemed to belong to a woman.
“…………”
She could not say no.
She wanted to, but she could resist nothing.
Before long, even thought began to leave her.
It felt as though she was ceasing to be herself—as though the person called Licia was being erased.
She was afraid, but could do nothing.
Her five senses disappeared. Her consciousness began to fade.
She was nearly past even wondering what would become of her when…
“…………?”
She felt another pair of arms overlap the arms wrapped around her body.
“—cia…”
A voice echoed through the white space and anchored Licia as she drifted away.
Her eyes were closed, and she should have been incapable of understanding anything, yet she recognized the voice calling her.
Her vanished senses returned. Her fading consciousness sharpened. She felt that she could open her eyes.
“—Licia!”
The voice reached her again, clearer than before.
She wanted to return to him. Amid everything she could not understand, that alone remained certain.
Yet the presence trying to carry her away had not disappeared.
She was terrified.
“……Ren.”
Resisting, Licia spoke his name and opened her eyes.
She could not see whatever had been calling her. The light filling the white expanse was pure and overwhelmingly divine.
Still, she resisted it and answered only Ren.
“Ren!”
A crack split the white world.
I will not leave Ren’s side.
The moment she formed that conviction, the magic stone in her chest erupted in pain. Licia pressed both hands over it, but the agony did not lessen.
It felt as though some tremendous power was commanding her.
“…Stop.”
She still understood nothing, and she was afraid.
She did not want to remain beside some incomprehensible light.
“I want to be… beside Ren!”
The compulsion pressing upon her magic stone continued to grow.
Then another compulsion—stronger than the first, so overwhelming it seemed to declare Licia its own—swept the pain away.
The discomfort vanished in an instant.
The first power recoiled from the one that had suddenly appeared. Strangely, it then rejected Licia completely.
In its place, Licia felt herself wrapped in the second power—no, in his presence.
“—LICIA!”
The instant his voice rang out, the white world shattered.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
“…Ren?”
The wings were gone. Licia had returned to her normal form.
She woke cradled across Ren’s lap, his face above hers.
Relief replaced the desperation that had filled his expression moments before. He touched her cheek and smiled.
“Falling asleep in the middle of a battle is dangerous—Licia.”
“…Ren. You said my name.”
“I had intended to wait until we escaped, but you refused to wake up.”
“Ahaha… Honestly. Calling me by name without warning just because I wouldn’t wake up is unfair.”
“You’re the one who suddenly fell asleep. I’m afraid I won’t accept objections.”
Licia placed her hand over his where it rested against her cheek.
Not realizing that his wounds had already healed, she used Sacred Magic. For some reason, it worked even more powerfully than when she had invoked it with desperate resolve moments earlier.
“Ren.”
“Yes?”
“…Don’t order someone else’s magic stone around without permission, idiot.”
“I didn’t. What happened? And what was that incredible attack?”
“I don’t understand either one. But it felt as though you gave my magic stone an order.”
“I did nothing of the sort! What does it even mean to order a magic stone?”
“Hehe. I don’t know either.”
The strange compulsion was completely gone. Licia somehow felt it would never return, not as long as Ren remained beside her. Even the magic stone within her chest seemed to say so.
For now, one fact was clear: Sacred Magic used on Ren had become more effective than usual. It felt as though the magic stone itself was giving all its strength to him alone.
“Where is the Sword Demon?”
“Still here. Your flashes and my flames forced it over there.”
The Sword Demon stood beneath one of the divine statues.
The light and fire had driven it back, and it now held its ground there.
Ren seated Licia safely, rose alone, and began walking.
He would bring this battle to an end.