Chapter R5. The Intruder
"I see, I roughly understand. Your ability is to fix an object in a certain state, right?" "Huh!?"
Hearing the voice, Regulus suddenly opened his eyes wide with a shocked expression.
The crimson sacred light illuminated the earth, the flowing blood turned into flames, and a girl awakened and stood up in the fire.
"Phoenix Divine Protection" The resurrected Reinhild raised the Dragon Sword and swung it toward the stunned Regulus.
In an instant, the world lost sound, and the shockwave accompanied by blue light knocked Regulus back for the first time.
"That's enough! Seriously, you! Not leaving the stage when it's time just makes people sick!" "Retreating without defeating you—that would be the real problem."
Reinhild lightly leapt and stood in mid-air.
Yes, there was a visible gap between her and the ground.
"What! What are you!?" Seeing this beyond-reason sight, Regulus couldn't help but roar.
"I am the knight of Lady Felt, candidate for the throne."
With a serious yet inappropriate declaration for the current situation, Reinhild's figure surrounded Regulus once again.
"You've been acting as you please from the start.
You also seem to have a considerable degree of ability, but unfortunately, your brain can't use it well.
Since you've glimpsed part of my ability, you should know this isn't about power.
No matter how you strike, it means nothing to me. You should understand this by now!"
As Reinhild stopped touching the ground, the battle once again became a one-sided beating. Facing this situation, the arrogant Regulus gradually began to lose control.
"Up to now, you may have enjoyed tormenting me, but someone who can only build their happiness by sacrificing others must have limits!
How much more trampling and ravaging must there be before you're satisfied, you greedy and terrifying monster!"
"That's harsh to hear. But I'm somewhat aware—I am a monster."
Reinhild maintained her offensive while speaking.
"The only thing I, as a monster, am good at is hunting down monsters like you who threaten the kingdom.
And everything has its limits—I don't believe you can keep using that ability endlessly.
Even if you can, that's fine, because there must be some usage range."
Looking at Regulus who was viciously cursing at her for spying on his secret, Reinhild confirmed her suspicion.
From the start, she noticed his awkward movements several times; now it made sense—he was wary of leaving some boundary.
"Speaking of which, you got knocked back when you lost focus earlier, right? To block my attacks, you have to be fully invested in the fight.
So how long can your spirit hold out—ten days? A hundred days? A thousand? No matter how long, I'll be here to meet you."
After confirming Regulus could not forcibly leave the fight, Reinhild spoke seriously.
"Selfish guy. Sinner! Die now! You hypocrite!…"
Ignoring Regulus's curses entirely, Reinhild swung the sheathed sword repeatedly like a cold machine executing orders.
If this continued, the battle could go on forever.
Yes, if it went on, someone chose the best moment to burst into the battlefield.
Reinhild instinctively looked over— a small boy with deep brown hair reaching his knees entered the battlefield flickering with incredibly high-level technique.
"Fist of the King."
The intruder shouted loudly.
His right hand grew more than twice its size, and his skin even reflected sunlight.
This was the supreme martial art invented by the Fist King over a lifetime to resist the Sword Saint's slash, now forgotten by everyone.
The next moment, blood splattered everywhere.
The huge hand and the small boy separated; the technique that could block a normal Sword Saint's strike proved useless against Reinhild's sharp sword.
"Damn, no—"
Instinctively choosing to use the deadly technique "Solar Eclipse," which, though it risks corrupting the user's memory, can alter the body to perfectly unleash the combat power the victim had before death, the boy instantly realized his mistake.
"So beautiful! So perfect! —Let me challenge this strike! —What an honor!"
In peak condition, Reinhild's perfect sword caused countless memories of top warriors in the boy's mind to riot.
They all wanted to meet this flawless strike beyond the heavenly realm.
In the end, none gained control of the body; the sword cut through the boy's throat in chaos, making his head forever separated from his body.
"Gluttony," the Great Sin Archbishop known as "The Gourmand," Lye Batenkaitos, died under the Sword Saint's blade without even introducing himself.
However, Reinhild had no time to pay attention to him because Regulus left the "safe zone" and charged toward the girl.
A very bad aura came from behind, with instincts and Divine Protections wildly alerting.
—When!?
Instinctively sidestepping, her body was pierced by immovable smoke and dust.
At the same time, the sand thrown by Regulus ruthlessly crushed the Gourmand's corpse and blocked Reinhild's last retreat.
Reinhild stomped hard; the shockwave scattered most of the surrounding dust.
Then the girl lightly blocked Regulus's right hand, which was extremely close, with the Dragon Sword's sheath, and used a technique of leveraging force to guide Regulus aside.
"Go die quietly."
Regulus roared, trying various methods to stabilize himself.
—Enough.
Confirming Regulus, without skill, still needed 2 seconds to steady himself to attack, Reinhild turned around—but the sword wrapped in mana in her hand did not slash down.
The figure before her looked exactly like her bedridden mother in both appearance and feeling.
—No!!!
Suddenly sensing some ability made her "missee the enemy's appearance," an unimaginable rage ignited in the girl's heart.
The sword flashing with blue light, guided by the Divine Protection, slashed to the other side.
As if hearing the girl's painful voice, the visual distortion disappeared, and what appeared before her was—
"Reinhild Van Astrea!!!"
In tone, expression, movement, and eyes, there was no doubt—
Mother!?
The blonde woman gently touched Reinhild's cheek, then Reinhild noticed the malice hidden deep in the woman's eyes.
Her sword hesitated for a moment before finally swinging down.
But those three moments of hesitation were enough for the top-tier intruder.
R6. No One Knows
Dodging Reinhild's counterattack which held no killing intent, the blonde woman's appearance began to dissolve and reconstruct, finally turning into a boy with clothes resembling rags, very messy dark brown long hair, and poisonous green eyes flashing with malice.
"I am Roy Alphard, the 'Gluttony' Archbishop of the Witch Cult, also known as the [Bizarre Eating]." Roy showed a wicked smile as he spoke.
"That just now was..."
Before Reinhild could finish speaking, Regulus's palm had already touched Reinhild's shoulder.
Such a basic mistake proved just how shaken Reinhild was by what had just happened, because in her heart Reinhild was absolutely certain that at least for that instant, the one who touched her was indeed her mother, bedridden and asleep for fourteen years.
"Have you ever tasted falling from the sky?" Regulus asked maliciously, then without waiting for Reinhild's resistance, he threw her up into the air.
Roy watched Reinhild flying away, licking his palm with a smile.
Perhaps out of anger for his brother's death and secretly hoping for the emergence of a hero, Roy did not use his power to fully consume Reinhild.
Instead, he merely consumed Reinhild's existence.
What he did not know was that this careless act actually changed his fate of being directly overwhelmed.
—Two great sin archbishops, —the pockmarked plain after battling Regulus, —a group of women resting in the woods, —the dragon carriage transporting the white whale's head—
The farther from the ground, the more Reinhild could see, her heart filled with anxiety, but she could not resist the force Regulus exerted on her body. —If only I had a foothold, then I've got it!
Reinhild's eyes brightened, and she quickly adjusted her posture. [Cloud's Divine Protection] Reinhild landed forcefully on a cloud.
Under the Divine Protection's effect, the cloud transformed into a walkable ground.
However, the residual power of Regulus's authority still pulled Reinhild deep into the cloud, passing through the layers.
Luckily, like a different world, there were several cloud layers.
Finally, at the high cloud layer, Reinhild stopped and urgently rushed back to the battlefield.
Just as her worst guess predicted, there was no one left at the pockmarked plain — no figures of the archbishops.
Biting her lip in frustration, Reinhild recalled what she had seen earlier and confirmed the direction toward the caravan transporting the white whale.
"You look troubled. Honestly, given we faced multiple archbishops, suffering only minor casualties is something of a miracle."
Hearing Ricardo's words, Hetaro nodded.
Since the unit was already heavily wounded and unable to participate further, losing only two men to the archbishops' attack could indeed be called a miracle.
"One amnesiac, two nameless, three eternal sleepers.
The amnesiac is manageable, but what do we do about the five who completely forgot everything?" PS: Amnesiacs—those who lost all memories to Gluttony; Nameless—those whose existence was erased from everyone's memory (others' memories rationalize their absence); Eternal Sleepers—those eaten by Gluttony entirely, forgotten by everyone, falling into deep sleep where all vital signs stop.
Though Gluttony did not act freely because of Reinhild's presence, the 'food' they accidentally ran into during the scattered retreat would certainly not be treated kindly.
Fortunately, since the expedition's initial target was the white whale, who shared abilities with Gluttony, Crush had prepared several measures, including the number of dragon carriages and how many people each carried.
Thus, they could estimate the number of victims by the missing two carriages and then recover them.
"Everyone should have been prepared from the start to be forgotten." "But the white whale was already defeated. This is my failure! If I hadn't been so careless..."
The two stopped their conversation and looked toward the door.
In the next moment, a lightly wounded older soldier burst in.
"Report, an eternal sleeper has awakened."
Reinhild stopped in her tracks, and before she could ask anything, the soldiers gathered outside suddenly turned their weapons on her. —Could they be controlled?
"Although I don't know who you are, miss, please stop here."
Ricardo watched her cautiously.
Seeing Hetaro quietly organizing a retreat, Reinhild rejected her own thought — if they were controlled, they wouldn't show such a resolve to face death, nor would they have the will to retreat.
"Uh, I'm Reinhild. What's going on with you all?" Reinhild stated her name.
"Isn't that the Dragon Sword Reid?" "Are you sure? The Dragon Sword Reid was lost during the white whale expedition."
The veteran knights brought by Wilhelm who had participated in the last white whale expedition were thrown into confusion by the sword's presence.
Some, fanatic fans of Theresia, showed outright hostility.
Others recognized the sword and, seeing the girl's appearance, began to guess her identity.
"Could she be someone we forgot, or even the Sword Saint? Our casualties against the archbishops have been suspiciously low." "Impossible. The headcount was confirmed several times."
When asked by Hetaro, Ricardo flatly denied it, which was reasonable since Reinhild was not in the expedition roster from the start, and when she arrived the white whale was already dead, so no reorganization was necessary.
"If you really are one of us, please just leave. With you here, we probably won't be able to sleep."
Ricardo pointed his greatsword at Reinhild.
Her acute hearing caught all the conversation and felt the extreme tension in the soldiers' spirits at that moment.
Any slight movement from her and the fight would break out without hesitation.
Feeling this tension, Reinhild clenched her teeth.
Though she really wanted to confirm the team's status, if battle started now, she knew she wouldn't get past these resolute warriors before they died.
"I understand. Let's leave it for today."
After saying this, Reinhild turned and left without hesitation.
Because she sensed her sister approaching thanks to her Divine Protection, and considering the soldiers' state, Hetaro also rejected the suggestion to retreat again.
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