Chapter 118 - Senior Holy Knight and Sunny Land [9] (1/2)

When I turned around, the soul dress – Fafnir – was flying across the air.

「N-No…」

Rain’s clone then turned towards Ria, and brought down its long sword on her, who was now unarmed.

「RIA!!」

Rose rushed to cover Ria, but there was no way she could make it in time.

(Shit…!)

I poured in my diminishing spiritual power, and stretched the dense darkness.

Darkness crawled the ground at a tremendous speed, and blocked Rain’s downward slash by a hair’s breadth.

(…Thank goodness.)

The moment when I felt relief,

「Can you really afford to look away in the middle of a battle…?」

The cold voice made the hairs on my body stand on end.

「……!?」

Looking back reflexively, Rain had already raised his sword high.

「―Nun!」

I reflexively held my sword in a defensive position against the diagonal slash which was approaching at a frightening speed.

(…Shit!)

A defense technique that I had repeated for over a billion years.

The movement which was ingrained into my body, came out on reflex.

「-『Don’t take it head on』. That’s what I advised you.」

The moment Rain said so,

「Ga, ha…」

The pseudo-black sword snapped, and a powerful slash tore into my chest.

「「Allen!!」」

I heard the cries of Ria and Rose from far away.

(Shit… I have to… heal…!)

I can’t continue the battle with such a deep wound.

I concentrated darkness to my chest and immediately started the healing.

(…Shit, the wound is healing too slowly.)

The wound in my chest was not closing up. Perhaps due to my spiritual power running out.

I guess this isn’t strange. Or rather, it was only natural.

In Lao village, I used darkness to fight over fifty members of the Black Organization.

After that, I treated all the villagers using darkness.

And earlier on in this battle, I clad a hundred people in clothes of darkness to protect everyone from Rain’s attack.

…Rather, it is more surprising that it held out this long.

(However, I can’t afford to fall here…)

I whipped my trembling feet and stood up.

While gasping for breath, I grasped my sword firmly with both hands and focused straight at Rain.

And then,

「According to the report… If you’re injured to the verge of death, your spirit core will start to run wild…」

He whispered to himself, with his hand on his chin.

「It’s been about two months since the failure of Fu Rudras’ mission, huh… If it’s only two months, then, even if it’s a phantom-class spirit core, no, especially because it is a phantom-class spirit core, it should not be able to『surface』yet. There was not enough time to recover, but… let’s just be doubly careful.」

Then he stopped talking, held up the sword high, and thrust it to the floor with force.

At the same time, a huge door appeared behind me.

(…What is this?)

About five meters tall.

Black double door with eerie patterns etched on its surface.

Suspended in mid-air, it emitted an indescribable wicked presence.

The mysterious door and Rain’s main body – I maintained Seigan no Kamae while paying attention to both.

「Door of Yaata.」 1

As he whispered so, the door slowly opened – from which, transparent water in the shape of『hands』came through.

The number was slightly over a hundred, filling the whole area.

(Another sinister technique…)

I swung my sword at the approaching hands.

「Eighth Sword – Yatagarasu!」

Eight slashes branched out and lopped off the hands of water very easily.

(…It’s surprisingly weak.)

Just when I formed that impression, the scattered water gathered together and took the form of『hands』again.

「Wha!?」

More than a hundred hands clung to my body and tried to drag me into the door.

「Damn…! What is this technique…?」

As I swung my sword quickly to shake off the hands of water, Rain spoke.

「…Well, it looks like it’s over.」

At the end of his gaze, there was the figure of Ria and Rose carried under the clone’s arm.

「Ria, Rose?!」

「Alle, n… sorry…」

「…sorry」

They were both in a battered state. Hands and legs bound by something that looked like mercury.

「Rain!」

「Huh, rest assured. I won’t kill them… for now.」

『For now』- that is to say, he’ll kill them sooner or later.

(Don’t screw around…!)

Blood rushed to my head, and I poured every ounce of my spiritual power into it.

「UOOOOOOOOH, Dark Shadow!」

Blade-like darkness that boasted terrific sharpness, tore up the hands of water into pieces.

However, it was completely meaningless.

Whether it was cut, sliced, or lopped, the transparent water quickly returned to the form of 『hands』.

「…Give up, Allen. No one has ever broken through this sealing technique. It seals the target’s consciousness. Without pain or suffering. You would already be in the other world before you realize it.」

「Like hell I’m gonna give up…!」

After that, I continued to resist desperately, but…

Slowly but surely, I was dragged into the door.

(Damn… Is there no other way!?)

Ria and Rose were exhausted. Ben-san and others could no longer fight.

Leia-sensei is not here.

And above all, that guy said for the time being that he couldn’t appear to the『surface』.

In other words, I have no choice but to overcome this difficult situation on my own.