Kays Translations

Chapter 29: The Priest of Regeneration [Part 3]

The staircase was long. Even so, Vayne and the others forced their exhausted bodies onward, running to see whether Orphide’s power had affected anything below.

If they found corruption, Squall or Vayne would purify it. The walls, floor, and ceiling of the staircase were built of stone, moss growing across them here and there.

After several more minutes, the seven felt wind. They had reached a vast hollow inside Windea, like the entire interior of a cylinder had been carved away.

“What is this place?”

“Look at that!”

A circular walkway followed the wall at the height where they stood.

Several arched bridges extended from the circular path toward the center. There, a sphere of light floated, woven from intricate emerald-green and azure lines. Several smaller spheres hovered around the largest one.

The largest sphere floated at the center and was already being eaten away by black mist. Just as Ren had feared, Orphide’s power was changing Windea’s mana from within.

“I think this is a sacred place where Windea’s mana gathers. What do you think?”

“Yeah. I think so too.”

Kaito agreed, and the exhausted Squall added:

“Let’s cleanse it quickly.”

But when they tried to cross one of the arched bridges, a powerful wind blocked them. They nearly fell over the edge, and no one wanted to imagine what would happen if they plunged into the bottomless darkness below.

It was no ordinary wind. It existed to protect the power at Windea’s center, and they had no obvious way to stop it.

Squall used magic.

First Squall used a spell to dispel curses. Then he followed it with advanced White Magic designed to drive away evil power.

The wind blocking the bridge weakened, but Orphide’s power continued corrupting Windea. Just as the others considered trying Vayne’s sacred power next, Charlotte narrowed her eyes and searched the chamber.

“Could it be…”

Charlotte had the keenest eyesight of the seven. Among the smaller light spheres surrounding the largest one, she noticed a single difference.

Unlike the others, one sphere was wrapped only in wind-aspected mana. Something unmistakably rested inside it.

That was…

“Why is it… here?”

She couldn’t help but doubt her own eyes, just like Kaito last year.

Charlotte had only seen it in pictures, but there was no mistaking the silhouette inside the wind and light: a bow once wielded by someone she knew from history.

It was the bow of House Rofelia’s ancestor—one of the Seven Heroes.

The question of why it was here echoed the mystery surrounding Airia. Once again, it felt as though there had to be a reason.

The bow could not be ignored. Its name was Wind King Bow Sylphina, a weapon said to have received the blessing of the Wind Spirit. It rested here almost as though it had been supporting the winds inside Windea.

Charlotte hesitated, unsure whether she was even permitted to take it or how she could do so. The other six stared at Sylphina within the sphere beside her.

Then the light and wind surrounding Sylphina suddenly subsided, and the bow began drifting slowly downward.

“Wait!”

Charlotte forgot her sprained ankle and ran. Even when pain burned through it, she kept moving as though she had not noticed. She caught the falling Sylphina with wind magic and pulled it into her hands before it could disappear into the abyss.

“Sharo-senpai!”

Vayne caught Charlotte as she lost her balance, but the momentum sent both of them rolling across the arched bridge. Still clutching Sylphina, Charlotte quickly apologized and thanked him for supporting her.

Their companions hurried over. With Vayne’s help Charlotte stood again, painfully reminded of her injured ankle even as she held Sylphina close.

“Why was this bow here?”

Holding Sylphina carefully, Charlotte voiced the question. Sera stepped beside her.

“Hey, Sharo… do you think that’s…?”

“Yes. I don’t know why it was here, but maybe it’s the same as Airia.”

“Probably. I still don’t know why Airia ended up where it did either…”

Kaito grinned.

“Maybe our ancestors’ power called us.”

“Maybe…”

Charlotte looked at the black power attacking the enormous central sphere. It stretched forward as straight and sharp as one of her arrows. Then Sylphina shone with a beautiful jade-green light, as though trying to tell her something.

“It feels like she’s telling me to use her.”

The imposing bow looked as though it had been carved from an enormous emerald and decorated with beautiful woodwork.

Its string was gold. It looked drawn impossibly tight, yet offered surprisingly little resistance when Charlotte pulled it.

After testing the feel, Charlotte stepped ahead of her friends and faced the sphere. As always, she simply drew the string and took one deep breath. No physical arrow was needed; she only had to focus at her fingertips, and an arrow of wind magic appeared.

Without turning around…

“This bow has to be incredibly strong! Keep the wind from knocking us down!”

As the magical arrow formed, powerful wind gathered around Sylphina—far stronger than Charlotte normally wielded. The wind turned visibly emerald-green and spiraled toward the arrowhead.

But exhaustion from the fight with Orphide left her aim unsteady, and the sprained ankle made it difficult to brace her lower body.

“If you miss, I’ll laugh at you until you die!”

Lizred’s sharp encouragement made Charlotte glance back. Lizred looked worried enough to cry, her lips drawn tight. The sight put strength back into Charlotte’s wavering legs.

“Idiot. Keep talking.”

“I’ll say as much as I want if it gets you fired up!”

“Don’t misunderstand. I’m not in a state where you need to worry about me.”

“I’ve always been weak when Liz says things like that!”

Perhaps it was because Charlotte had always doted on Lizred like a real younger sister. Even now, she could not simply thank her; perhaps Charlotte wanted to show her a cool side of herself too.

Charlotte steadied herself and aimed again. This time there was no wobble or tremor.

—Charlotte Rofelia, master archer.

The wind surrounding Sylphina settled, bringing a smile to Charlotte’s face. The weapon had already finished judging its new master.

“If you acknowledge me as your master—”

She let go of the magic arrow.

“Then show me what you can do. Purge that corruption!”

Sacred wind became a flash of emerald-green light and flew.

The black power invading the giant sphere transformed into reaching arms. More than a dozen tried to seize the sacred wind, but each burst apart. The few that remained twisted around the flash, unable even to touch it, before Sylphina’s power pierced through Orphide’s corruption reaching for the sphere.

Green mana like flickering fireflies filled the enormous hollow. The wind that washed over the seven felt pure enough to cleanse the soul. Charlotte’s body swayed, and Sera caught her.

“Not bad, Sharo.”

Sera welcomed her with a broad smile.

For the seven of them, the battle had finally come to an end here.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

The effects of Charlotte’s use of Sylphina reached Ren and Orphide above in the temple.

The temple’s outer structure was an open colonnade, so the surrounding landscape was easy to see. Even at night, starlight kept the area from becoming completely dark.

Breathing hard and protecting one injured arm, Orphide looked out across Windea, then leapt from the colonnade into the square.

“I never imagined I would be defeated this completely.”

Orphide’s manner remained unchanged, a cool smile still on his face. But he absolutely refused to answer questions about the girl he called ‘that person.’ Information about her was worth more to him than his own life.

He had been driven into a corner.

The sacred relic should have strengthened all his abilities, yet he still could not win. The best outcome left to seek was a draw that came as close to victory as possible.

“…I am a priest.”

Orphide clutched his upper body with both arms, then released a black wave from his entire body that blasted Ren away.

“I have no intention of bowing my head to a child of Elfen!”

In that brief opening, Orphide created a purple-glowing magic circle across the square. The mana surging through it held enough destructive force to reduce anyone it touched to ash.

At the center of the circle, Orphide laughed as the strength left his knees.

He sat down on the broken paving stones, leaning back against rubble that had fallen from the rocky wall. He no longer had the strength to stand.

Orphide exchanged words with Ren, who stood a little more than a dozen mel away.

“How about this? Would you like to fight me again in the afterlife?”

“Did you think I would accept?”

“No. But I would very much like you to. Because you are dangerous.”

Ren drove the Water Magic Sword into the paving stones and switched to the Mithril Magic Sword. Silver-white and jet-black mana too great for the blade to contain spilled over and wrapped his arm.

Before leaving Elendil, Licia and Fiona had seen him off. Even here, those two colors reminded him of them, and somehow the thought gave him courage.

“…When all of this is over, I’ll come straight back.”

When the power of the magic circle expanded completely, Orphide, who had been sitting, reached out his hand toward Ren.

Magic filled the palm of his hand.

Ren raised his Mithril Magic Sword.

Then…

A momentary sound of the wind cutting through.

A beam as large as Lizred’s Dragon’s Breath erupted from Orphide’s outstretched hand. It was the same violet color as the magic circle, surrounded by mana that flickered like flames in the wind.

It tore straight through the paving stones toward Ren. At the same time, Sword of Authority poured from the descending Mithril Magic Sword.

This was the true final clash—a head-on contest of power.

Ren’s Sword of Authority met the beam and gradually ate away at its force.

“Guh…”

But Ren paid a price as well. One arm was scorched by Orphide’s mana, the curse boring deep enough to send pain through the muscle fibers themselves.

Even so, Ren refused to loosen his grip on the Mithril Magic Sword.

“You fool… even like this, are you—!?”

The end came abruptly.

And it was brilliant.

“Aaaaaaaaah!”

With Ren roaring, the Mithril Magic Sword carrying Sword of Authority finally completed its downward swing.

A violent storm and violet lightning tangled together, then burst apart as a wind stripped of destructive force. Silver-white and jet-black flashes shattered, cut through, purified, and erased Orphide’s beam together with the magic circle that produced it.

Orphide’s mana broke apart into particles of light and drifted through the sky. The terrible violence of moments before suddenly fell silent.

Light from the destroyed magic circle mingled with the vivid blue mana of the Water Magic Sword, creating a beautiful, fantastical scene.

The dancing particles of light and water seemed to move impossibly slowly.

Still seated, Orphide spoke.

“Magnificent—”

He would not allow the descendants of the Seven Heroes—or Ren—to take his life from him.

“To think today, of all days, would be such a beautiful day of calamity.”

Facing that hateful beauty, Orphide died naturally rather than by Ren’s hand. He held to his refusal to fall into Leomel’s custody until the very end, smiling at Ren even in the instant before his life went out.

There were others who witnessed the end of the battle.

Vayne and the others.

They emerged after Orphide had deployed the magic circle and saw the final clash with their own eyes.

The space was filled with crystalline blue mana alongside Ren’s silver-white and jet-black power. They had sensed while climbing the stairs that something terrifying was happening, but none of them had imagined a sight like this.

“…”

Ren remained standing in silence after the battle. One arm hung limp from the damage inflicted during the final clash.

No one knew what he was thinking.

Eventually, Lizred found her voice as she stared at Ren’s back.

“…So that is…”

That was—

“Ren Ashton—the Sword Saint of the Mighty Sword Style.”

A pure breeze drifted through Windea at night, gentle as though offering thanks for the battle’s end.

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