Chapter 701

“Ughhh…”

I grabbed my dizzy head, staggering, and looked at Or-han, who was also swaying like me.

“Bleeding…?”

Blood streaming down through my disheveled hair. Just like me, his forehead was cracked and bleeding. He dodged my knee strike earlier, and now this.

Clearly, he wasn’t using the Indestructible Body technique.

“Is that so-called Indestructible Body finally reaching its limit?”

“Limit… you think so?”

The next moment, Or-han’s foot slammed into my side.

“Khhak…!”

The shock of my organs being flipped. Blood gushed out. The strike was twice as fast as usual, so I couldn’t react in time.

I flew horizontally for twenty meters, crashing through an empty house. Walls and pillars shattered, and the collapsing roof poured down on me.

“Not yet!”

The rapidly approaching aura. Or-han was closing in. Even with his heart shattered, he was moving faster than when he was unharmed.

I get it now. It’s not that he can’t use the Indestructible Body, but that he’s choosing not to. He’s given up on the unbreakable will and is instead focusing that energy on enhancing his body.

…In other words, it means I can now hit him without holding back.

“You damn bastard…!”

I shook off the debris piled on my sprawled body and charged at him.

“Just die already-!”

Sword and blade clashed, sparks flying, legs crossed, and a loud roar echoed.

Both of us had lost an arm, so the attacks were monotonous, but the power and speed behind each strike surpassed even our previous fights when we were unharmed.

Every time the blade grazed my body, armor was cut and blood spurted out. Hammer-like kicks shattered bones and muscles.

Of course, Or-han also groaned and suffered wounds with each strike he took.

“Kaaaah!”

“Kyaaaak!”

Or-han and I roared, spitting blood, and clashed fiercely, tearing through the surroundings.

The shockwaves from Or-han’s steps shattered the road’s paving stones, and a stray Vacuum Blade sliced through the church’s spire diagonally.

With a rumbling roar, the upper part of the spire slid down and crashed to the ground, raising a cloud of dust.

“Ha, you dodged that?”

“Of course, I had to…!”

Or-han, who had bent back to avoid the Vacuum Slash, sprang up and charged at me with his shoulder. It felt like a human-shaped battering ram was coming at me.

“Where do you think you’re going!”

I bit down on my sword, grabbed Or-han’s shoulder with my free right hand, spun, and kicked him away.

Crunch.

“Khhuk…!”

The sensation of breaking armor and shattering bones was vivid. The speed of my kick added to Or-han’s own momentum. He flew like a child hit by a truck, crashing through five buildings.

The ground shook as if an earthquake had struck, and a thick cloud of dust covered the area like fog.

“Not yet!”

With a determined shout, the dust cloud split. Or-han, charging through like a dragon wrapped in clouds, slammed his right foot into my abdomen.

I flew like he did, demolishing a row of buildings with my back. Those fighting nearby were swept away by the collapsing structures.

“Uwaaah!”

“Ru-run! If you get caught, it’s certain death!”

“Spread out! Don’t get close! You’ll be swept away!”

Imperial soldiers and Ka`har alike screamed and frantically dodged.

The clash of superhumans transcending even heroes. To those with human emotions, it was nothing short of a landslide in a storm, a disaster.

—

Or-han was stubborn, unbelievably stubborn. Despite his heart being destroyed, massive blood loss, and the cold of the underworld seeping into his exhausted body, he kept going.

Was this how my enemies felt when facing me? His life force was tougher than any monster’s.

…But even that was finally reaching its limit.

“Khh, ugh…!”

Or-han grimaced, gritting his teeth. His complexion, pale to the point of turning blue, resembled that of a specter.

In the middle of the ruined square, Or-han and I faced each other, blades crossed, our bodies covered in wounds.

“Haa… haa… What’s wrong? You’re staggering.”

“Khhuk……”

I pressed down on Durandal, and Or-han, holding his sword like a shield, trembled and bent his knees. It seemed he couldn’t hold on any longer.

“…Looks like this is really the end.”

I smiled faintly, pressing down on him with my longsword.

I was also close to my limit, but I was in much better shape than Or-han, whose heart had exploded and was cursed.

Looking at the severed surface of my left arm, which was cold as ice, it seemed the curse was slowly affecting me too… but I could still hold on. Probably thanks to the Holy Mark.

“Khhuk…!”

Or-han, bleeding purple blood from between his gritted teeth, finally knelt under the pressure. At that moment, I was certain of victory.

After a long, grueling fight, finally.

“Can’t even talk anymore? Then, die like this.”

I pressed down on him with Durandal’s blade. The blue blade slowly sank into Or-han’s shoulder.

“……You’ve grown stronger. Ha-shal-leur. Like my child… like Ai-mel-ra’s child.”

And then.

Or-han opened his mouth with difficulty.

“Through this fight… I’m convinced. Now… no one, absolutely no one, can harm you…”

“…What?”

I tilted my head, puzzled. What’s he going on about, acting all proud? He’s about to be killed by me.

…Well, by Ka`har standards, maybe that’s something to be proud of?

“I failed… torn between desire and duty… I chose duty, and this is the result. It was unlike me…”

Whether he heard my question or not, Or-han continued to mutter, his half-closed eyes staring into the void.

Having lost the strength to hold his sword, he let it drop and continued to lament his fate, spitting blood.

“…So? What are you trying to say?”

Instead of cutting off his head, I planted Durandal in the ground and leaned on it, listening to his final words.

Since they were his last words before death, I thought I should at least hear them out and maybe pass them on to Hersela.

Given the situation, I couldn’t keep my promise to let her fight Or-han, so this was the least I could do.

“So… live as you wish. Break free from what binds you with strength… and achieve what you desire. That… that is the way of a true warrior…”

“…Is that really okay to say? You don’t know what I want. Like I said before, I might slaughter all the grassland people over thirty for revenge.”

I don’t plan to, but… Hersela might.

“No… Ludwig might, but you… you wouldn’t do that.”

Or-han spat blood and chuckled.

“I remembered… what Ai-mel-ra said. Ironically, only now… The sword you hold, Ai-mel-ra’s sword… it wouldn’t follow someone who would do such a thing…”

“……That’s true.”

Indeed, in the game, Durandal didn’t recognize Hersela as its master and was simply wielded as Jin’s Silver Sword until it broke.

“And also… there was something else… something I wanted to say, needed to say… but I can’t remember…”

His voice trailed off, fading. Or-han’s breathing grew faint. It seemed all the blood had drained from his body, and even the bleeding from his wounds had stopped.

“Ai-mel-ra… If only… I had left with you then…”

Those were Or-han’s last words.

The strongest warrior of the grasslands closed his eyes and lay down on the pool of blood.

With a sigh that had no conclusion.

“Sigh…”

I slumped down beside him, trembling right hand fishing out a cigarette from my pocket.

“Really, leaving such an awkward last word…”

I’m not sure if it’s okay to tell Hersela. With her personality, she’d probably go crazy.

I sighed and ignited the Rune of Fire, setting Or-han’s corpse ablaze.

To prove his death, it would be more efficient to cut off his head and hang it on a pole… but I didn’t want to do that.

– Whoosh!

As the body began to burn fiercely, I lit my cigarette with the flames and exhaled smoke into the sky.

Whether it was the release of tension or the severe blood loss, my head was spinning, and I had no strength left in my body.

…This is tough.

I sat by the campfire made from the corpse, smoking and tending to my wounds.

I removed the Ice Blade fixed on my left shoulder and tore my clothes to tightly bandage my shattered left arm to stop the bleeding.

With only one arm left, it took longer than expected to tie the knot with my right hand and teeth. Long enough to finish a cigarette.

Then, I tossed the finished cigarette beside Or-han’s skeletal remains, grabbed Durandal’s hilt, and stood up.

I had to move again. Even though Or-han was dead, the war itself wasn’t over.