Once Nothing Special (1)
No stars were visible.
Even when he looked up at the sky, there were no stars.
"......"
For the boy, the sky was the ceiling of the underground city, and the stars were nothing more than ore lamps embedded in that ceiling. A false sky, false stars, yet his wish alone was real.
The boy prayed to the stars.
Dreaming of stars in a place where stars could not be seen.
* * *
Najin had fought many powerful enemies.
In truth, in most situations, Najin fought opponents stronger than himself. After clashing with higher-ranked beings until he was sick of it, he had learned a few things.
First, never let the distance open up.
Because the mont it did, he had no way to attack, while the other side could fire attacks that ignored tens or even hundreds of ters. Once that happened, the battle beca one-sided. He was the only one who got worn down.
So it was better to grit his teeth and close in.
At close range, there was at least a chance.
And second.
Use even the slightest edge you have over your opponent.
Most of the ti, that edge was dynamic vision and reaction speed.
Najin was confident in both, and even against Transcendents, there were many tis he not only kept up but took the upper hand. Creating openings through precise future sight and reaction speed was Najin's specialty.
He was a Sword Seeker, but he had already gone beyond a level that could simply be called Sword Seeker. Not against Transcendents who had spent long years after reaching that realm, but against those who had only just stepped into Transcendence, he was now strong enough to predict victory.
Then what about the one he was facing now?
Mordred's avatar body.
It was an avatar made from a heart split off from the True Body, and it was directly controlled by Mordred himself. Now that it had left the City of the Abyss, this avatar body had clearly weakened with distance from the True Body.
It had weakened, but...
Even weakened, it still held strength on the level of a Transcendent. The original body was simply too powerful. Then again, maybe that was obvious.
His opponent was a being who had once belonged to the Round Table.
A Transcendent who had crossed the continent with Arthur a thousand years ago, fought the monsters of Camlann, and already reached the peak more than a millennium ago. At the end of that journey, Mordred had fallen, but that fall had not made him weaker.
An inverse star, an overturned star.
By overturning one's entire story, one beca a completely new being. That had happened to Viola when Ladon devoured her, it had happened to the Star of Mirth when it beca the Star of Scorn, and the Lighthouse that Illuminates the Abyss he had seen underground was another example.
Not denying oneself, but reinterpreting oneself.
A story could change endlessly depending on perspective. Then how had the Rebel Knight interpreted his own life to beco an inverse star? Najin did not care much about that.
Only one thing was certain.
Shaaah!
Right now, that man existed only to kill everything connected to Arthur.
Kaaaang!
The instant he blocked Mordred's attack as Mordred raced along the cliff, Najin frowned. The mont sword struck sword, his body shook. He heard sothing crack with a hard crunch.
He did not want to open the distance, but he judged he could not stand in place and take that attack head-on.
It would break.
He lifted his foot from where he had braced it into the cliff. Najin did not resist the shockwave from Mordred's slash. He let his body go and leaped far back.
Like being swept away by a giant wave, like being shoved by a storm, Najin's body shot off like a shell. At least there was one small rcy: nowhere to crash into. This was a cliff. As he shot upward, Najin's eyes widened.
A pit drowned in thick darkness.
But in that darkness, Najin saw red eyes flash. At once, Najin twisted in midair and swung his sword. Platinum Sword Aura swept away so of the darkness draped over the abyss, but...
Chaaaaaaak!
Dark crimson Sword Aura burst from the darkness and swallowed Najin's light. The mont he blocked that launched aura, he almost lost his sword. His arm shook. It felt like soone was hamring his body.
Bang.
Mordred had fired Sword Aura from long range, and the instant that fired aura hit, Mordred was already right in front of Najin. Red eyes stared straight at him.
Eyes like a bloodshot beast.
Mordred swung right after that. With a booming clang, the instant their swords collided, nearly half the aura wrapped around Najin's blade scattered. If they clashed once more like this, he would be cut down together with his sword. Najin gritted his teeth and threw himself backward.
Blown away by the impact, Najin pulled his Sword Aura up again. He did not want distance, but the other side forced distance. And once distance opened, what ca was...
Najin's eyes widened.
The whole world turned red.
The future he saw was black, and red.
The dark crimson light created by Clarent, the Sword of Finality. The instant the sword that had put a period on Arthur's story flashed, Najin reflexively snapped his head aside.
Spurt.
The slash grazed just above Najin's head. Najin did not look back, but he could tell what had happened where it landed.
The cliff split diagonally.
The massive cliff was collapsing.
As heaps of stone poured down, Najin could not even let out a hollow laugh. Was that really weakened? He could not grasp how to deal with it. And of course, Mordred had no intention of giving Najin ti to figure it out.
Thud.
Stepping on falling rocks, kicking off cliff walls, repeating that sa process again and again.
Thud, thud, thud!
Mordred charged like a beast.
The Sword of Finality glowed with nace.
As if to say, your story ends here.
2.
He was pushed back, pushed back, and pushed back again.
Each ti he took a blow, Najin's body creaked, and the impact piled up. Every ti he blocked a sword, his whole body rang and his heart throbbed.
He was being driven back.
Whenever swords clashed, his body flew through the air with the sound of sothing breaking. Out of the abyss, above the cliff, all the way to the entrance of the landfill.
"...Kgh!"
Wind slamd into his body. High in the sky, Najin looked down. He could see the whole underground city at a glance. And rising fast from below that pit, he saw Mordred.
Najin twisted in midair.
Ram Horn.
A technique that had always opened Najin's path, and even against Transcendents had created brief openings.
Crack.
But Mordred tore Ram Horn apart with his bare body and ca straight for Najin. As if a storm like this could never stop him. Najin swung at Mordred as he pierced through the storm.
Without planting his feet, he could not use the ultimate forms of the Triumph Sword, but he could still swing the basics.
The basics of the Empire.
As if scoffing at those basics, Mordred did not even swing his sword. He caught Najin's blade with his bare hand. While holding that sword, Clarent shot toward Najin's throat. The mont Najin tried to defend by raising Lance of the Crossed Star, Mordred's body spun.
"Ku, urk!"
Mordred's foot slamd into Najin's stomach.
Najin heard the skin of his abdon split.
His bones crushed, and pain hit so hard it felt like a hole had opened through his belly and back and his organs were spilling out. Najin's vision went black for a mont.
Kwaaang!
The impact pounding his body snapped Najin back to his senses. Sparks burst before his eyes. He had been driven diagonally through the air and seed to stop only after slamming into a building.
"Kuhk, gah, khhup..."
Najin coughed up blood and forced himself up.
His body would not obey.
Whether it did or not, his opponent never held back. With a body that barely moved, Najin rolled across the ground. Using both arms and legs, he kicked off the ground like an animal and escaped the wreckage.
Right after, with a cracking roar, the building where Najin had been buried shattered to pieces.
"You're no different from a beast. Where did you throw away the dignity a knight should have?"
Mordred's mockery reached Najin's ears.
Najin looked ahead from a hunched stance.
There stood Mordred, feet planted on the ground, sneering.
"So you said you drew Excalibur."
Mordred walked toward him.
"So you said it selected you? What a joke. What do you know about Excalibur? Do you even understand that sword's value, its true worth?"
The Rebel Knight ca closer.
"The sword itself has no value. Excalibur had value because Arthur wielded it. It was Arthur, and no one else, who forged that rely shining blade into a holy sword."
He laughed.
"A sword already completed. A story already completed. A story that already has its period. Do you think suddenly writing your na into it makes it your story? Not at all. Not at all."
Whirl, crunch.
To block even Mordred's light swing, Najin had to give everything he had. Watching Najin roll on the ground, Mordred sneered.
"What part of this looks like a king? What part looks like a hero who saved the world? What part looks like the model knight?"
As if he were playing with him.
Still, seeing Mordred approach with clear intent to kill him, Najin clenched his teeth.
-Najin.
And then.
-You do not have to draw it. Hold Excalibur and pull up your Imagery. Even just the hilt is enough.
He heard rlin's voice. The mont he heard her voice, after she had been preparing sothing all this ti, Najin followed her words.
He grabbed Excalibur.
It still would not draw, but gripping the hilt, Najin pulled up his Imagery. At that mont, Mordred's eyes widened. He looked not at Najin, but beside him.
"Well, look who this is."
Mordred pointed to Najin's side.
As if he had seen a familiar face.
And as if he had t a being he could never forget.
"The blind one who opened her eyes."
Najin looked to his side. rlin was there as always. But she had descended here with a real body, not a re illusion.
Seeing Najin's wide eyes, rlin gave a bitter smile.
The explanation was complicated. Borrowing the starlight contained in Excalibur, rlin had temporarily unfolded Najin's Imagery here. Like a Transcendent creating their own stage. rlin had simply stepped onto that stage.
It was a miracle made possible because Najin had reached the realm of Blossoming and could scatter his Imagery around him, and because this place, the underground city, shared the sa scenery as his Imagery.
Even so, it was limited to the space right beside Najin, just enough room for one person to stand.
And because she was borrowing Najin's power, rlin could not use even a Transcendent's level of strength, much less the power of her true form.
The price for that?
Huge. Beyond words.
rlin had planted her ntal form in Najin's Imagery, and what she had brought out now was rlin's mind itself. If it took even the slightest damage, rlin's mind would be struck, and that could beco the cause of defeat.
Carrying that level of risk, rlin revealed herself.
Because she could not leave Najin to die.
Because she never wanted to lose soone again.
She would not stand by and watch like she had back then. Even if they were destroyed here together, she would not remain a bystander. rlin looked back over her shoulder.
Then she smiled.
Najin grabbed the hand rlin offered and barely got to his feet. Watching the two of them, Mordred laughed. A beast-like laugh echoed.
"Pathetic to the end. rlin, is that truly the king you chose? Do you truly think he can take you beyond the abyss?"
rlin's gaze left Najin and turned to Mordred.
"Shut your mouth."
Unlike when she looked at Najin, her gaze was cold and frigid. Looking at Mordred like he was an insect, rlin stared at him. Space rippled around her body.
One who had belonged to the Round Table, and one who still belonged, looked at each other.
As rlin snapped her fingers at the filthy traitor, Najin stayed silent. Bleeding, with blurred eyes, Najin looked up at the sky.
No stars were visible.
Only the ore lamps embedded in the underground city's ceiling flickered. It felt as if he had returned to long ago, to the past. In that helplessness, Najin thought of it without aning to.
The first wish he had ever made.
The wish he had made while looking at a false sky, false stars.
His own starting point.
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