City of the Abyss, Artman (6)
"What a goddamn ss. Seriously."
Eurypylus drew a rough breath and took in the situation.
It was bad. Really bad.
The Lighthouse kept firing. Enduring the heat rays from the eight lighthouses hanging upside down in the sky was hard enough, and Mordred's avatar body was not standing by and watching, either.
There was no ti to weigh options.
Eurypylus gripped his halberd with both hands.
At that mont, six halberds rose behind him. Halberds forged from his stars. With seven in total, he moved.
Whooom.
The instant Eurypylus swung his halberd, the other six moved at the sa ti.
KWA, GAGAGAGAGAK!
A storm carved through the city. Smashing the lighthouses floating in the sky, Eurypylus pushed forward.
KIIIIIIIING!
Six halberds moving by his will, one in his hand. Seven halberds swung at the charging Mordred. Seven tangled trajectories, and the storm those seven paths produced, lashed out like a whip.
Mordred stopped dead in the middle of his charge.
Without moving from that spot, he moved his sword.
Before the seven-pronged assault and seven storms, Mordred's blade began tracing its sword path.
...Mordred had once been a knight of the Round Table.
The Round Table, where the finest and noblest knights gathered. If asked who was strongest, people nad Lancelot or Galahad. But if the fallen stars who had lived through that era were asked who they least wanted to face among the Round Table...
After Arthur, there was always one na.
Mordred.
Mordred, the knight who rebelled against the world.
Mordred's sword was like a beast. Arthur's was clean, beautiful, restrained. Mordred's raged like an animal, clawing and tearing everything apart. Mordred himself had been rebellious to the bone from birth, and his sword was no different.
The beast rampaged.
Even as an avatar body, even weakened.
His skill never dulled.
Mordred's eyes flashed viciously, and his sword sped up. Along the path Clarent drew, blood-like sword aura sprayed outward.
The storm was torn apart.
First strike, three of Eurypylus's seven halberds broke.
Second strike, two of the remaining four shattered.
Third strike, one more.
In less than a second, the blade flashed three tis. Eurypylus's six halberds snapped. Only the one in his hand remained.
Eurypylus did not care that the others had broken. He still held one.
The mont Eurypylus's halberd moved to cut through Mordred's body, Mordred gave up his flank. He was sure he could cut Eurypylus's neck first, before his own body was split in two.
Give flesh, break bone.
That was Mordred's arrogance, and Mordred himself. The certainty that giving up one arm ant nothing as long as he could cut down Arthur's descendant behind him.
But Eurypylus had no intention of letting his head fall quietly. Even if his neck ca off, he would bisect Mordred. He poured strength into his halberd.
Eurypylus aid at two targets at once.
Mordred in front of him, and the Lighthouse behind him.
Either cut both, or if he could not, inflict fatal damage and ruin their plan. It was the optimal move, but not the best one. The mont Mordred gave up his flank, his outstretched hand grabbed the halberd's shaft.
He could not stop it completely, but he could reduce its force. In that instant, countless moves crossed, along with choices and decisions.
Eurypylus saw the outco.
His neck would fall. But his halberd would fail. The mont Eurypylus tried to fight that future.
Tap.
Sothing unexpected intervened.
Suddenly, or as if it had always been there, a sword thrust in from Eurypylus's side.
That sword moved slowly.
Not fast, but inserted through precise prediction.
In a battle between Transcendents, the change made by that one sword should have been tiny. At best, a slight shove from behind. A palm's width, a single step, far too little to decide victory or defeat.
Swaeek.
But the value of a strike is not its raw power. It is the change it creates.
In that sense, Najin's strike was valuable.
With bloodshot eyes, Najin read the future.
The perfect mont, found by overdriving every one of his senses.
Najin's sword slamd into Mordred's blade. It was the best strike he could give, but the instant the blades collided, Najin felt pain like his body was being torn apart.
Craaack.
Swept by the recoil, Najin's body was flung away. Even so, his strike succeeded in changing Mordred's sword path. Just one palm's width, but that one palm's width saved Eurypylus's life.
Slash.
His neck was cut halfway, but not severed. The shockwave from Eurypylus's halberd hurled Mordred far away. Mordred's flank was also deeply cut.
Eurypylus's strike even reached the distant Lighthouse, forcing it to steady itself.
And so, a brief stalemate ford.
Clutching his bleeding neck with one hand and pressing it closed, Eurypylus turned around.
Najin was there, buried under rubble.
"..."
A brief hesitation.
Then Eurypylus made his choice.
3.
Strong. Filthy strong.
Najin tried to rise from the rubble, then ground his teeth when he realized his arm was shattered.
He had succeeded in creating a change.
But it was only temporary. Their defeat was still looming. He tried to push the rubble off himself, but his body would not give him strength.
Just blocking one strike had done this much damage.
As Najin struggled, the rubble rumbled.
Soone lifted it.
Eurypylus.
Najin swallowed hard when he saw him. His neck was half-cut, and wounds covered his body. Even so, Eurypylus's face was expressionless.
"I have a plan," he said.
"This is between and the Lighthouse. Sorry for dragging an outsider into it. I put on a brave face, but handling both at once is too much."
With a bitter smile, he pointed at the sky.
The hole open above Camlann.
The Abyss light leaking from it kept reinforcing Mordred's avatar body and the Lighthouse.
"An avatar body gets weaker the farther it is from its constellation. This place has an environnt close to the Abyss, and a direct passage to the Abyss is open, but..."
He signaled with his eyes.
"If you get outside, things will be a little different. And from now on, I am going to close that passage no matter what. So..."
"Understood."
"Straight answer. It won't be easy."
"If we fail, the world ends, doesn't it? This is not the ti to worry about easy or hard."
The Lighthouse Keeper laughed in disbelief.
"I like that."
"Will you be alright?"
"Who is worrying about who... well, what can I do? I have to be alright. This is why you should choose your friends carefully. Pick the wrong one, and life gets painfully hard."
Joking, Eurypylus let out a sigh.
"Najin."
"Yes, Eurypylus."
"To you..."
He stopped himself. Then he smiled bitterly. After patting Najin on the shoulder twice, Eurypylus swallowed the words, as if they were words he had no right to say.
"Clench your teeth."
"...What?"
The mont Eurypylus said it, he grabbed the back of Najin's neck and spun in place.
Thwump.
Eurypylus hurled Najin high into the sky. As Najin shot upward, Mordred's gaze naturally followed. Mordred's goal was to kill Najin. Eurypylus was only an obstacle, so his eyes went straight to Najin.
Eurypylus did not miss that opening.
Boom.
In an instant, he closed the distance. He forced himself forward without thinking about what ca after, and his ankle and calf burst under the strain. Sacrificing one leg, Eurypylus seized his chance.
With all his strength, Eurypylus swung his halberd upward.
Mordred reacted at once and drew his sword in to guard, but from the start Eurypylus had not ant to cut him.
The instant Mordred's sword t his halberd with a clang, Eurypylus released all his power.
Condensed aura exploded.
One of Eurypylus's arms also shattered, unable to withstand the force.
KWAAAAAAAAAANG!
The violent shockwave and its wind pressure blasted Mordred high into the air. The mont Najin and Mordred were both airborne, Eurypylus let out a long breath.
Even while the heat ray from the Lighthouse pierced his body, he swung his halberd upward at the sky.
A full-power strike.
Cracks raced across the ceiling of City of the Abyss, Artman, already worn down by prior damage. With a sharp sound like shattering glass, a small hole opened to the outside.
The wind pressure Eurypylus created threw Najin and Mordred out through that hole.
"Cough, hck."
Pierced through by the heat ray and coughing blood, Eurypylus let out a long breath. Forcing a smile, he spoke to the distant Lighthouse.
"Now we can finally talk."
"..."
"Do not make that face. This is your story and mine, isn't it? A story we should finish between ourselves. Isn't that right?"
Unable to hold back any longer, the Lighthouse spoke.
"Why are you going this far? I was the one who cried out for salvation in this world. You only followed . Since when did you love the world so much that you'd go this far..."
"You seem to be mistaken about sothing."
Staggering, Eurypylus steadied himself.
"I'm not a good man. I don't love the world. Salvation? Do not talk nonsense. I never cared about that in the first place. The world is full of filthy bastards. The longer I lived, the more sick of it I got."
"Then why?"
"Are you really asking because you don't know?"
Eurypylus smirked.
He brushed back his blood-soaked hair.
Because of you, you damned woman.
Eurypylus kicked off the ground.
4.
Through the stage and out.
Rising up the sa path he had descended, driven by the wind, Najin narrowed his eyes.
Mordred was there, having followed him outside. He had no intention of going back. He stared at Najin as if he wanted him dead imdiately.
Until now, Mordred had attacked Eurypylus only because he could not easily ignore him and reach Najin. Now that he was outside Eurypylus's range, Mordred's blade pointed only at Najin.
His face said he did not care at all that distance from the true body weakened him. Was he really weaker? Even outside City of the Abyss, Mordred's vicious pressure remained.
This would not be easy. It was hard. A fight he was unlikely to win.
'But.'
Najin spun in midair.
Najin drove his sword into the cliff.
It was the cliff leading to City of the Abyss, the sa cliff he had climbed down before. Najin started running along it. Right after, ca a sharp tap as Mordred kicked off the cliff too.
'That is exactly why it has to be done.'
Running along a nearly vertical cliff as if it were flat ground, Mordred swung his sword at Najin. Najin t the blade and clenched his teeth.
You said Excalibur wasn't mine.
You said I wasn't qualified.
"Fuck off."
Maybe it was because he had returned to his hotown. The feeling of being back in childhood made Najin's words co out rough on their own. Najin curled one corner of his mouth.
Even without that, he was a once-in-a-generation genius.
Najin's sword aura surged.
A platinum-mixed sword aura. The mont Mordred faced it, his eyes turned bloodshot.
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