Chapter 15. Metia Destruction Battle (II)
"Such a rejection of dialogue and cruel attack is…"
Pandora's voice sounded again. The severed corpse and the bloodstains on the ground had vanished once more. The only proof that the recent events were not a dream were the two sword marks, several meters deep, left on the stairs.
Facing this bizarre scene, one person did not hesitate: Wilhelm, who had stepped onto the stairs at some point, his sharp sword leaving a beautiful silver trajectory in the air.
"Let's calm down first and give each other another chance for dialogue…"
Although the corpse in front of him had not yet disappeared, Pandora's familiar voice came from behind him. Wilhelm, whose focus was unprecedentedly sharp, felt something approach his shoulder. While bending his knees to lower his body, his sword thrust backward from under his armpit.
"Ugh~~~"
A familiar sound. Turning around, Wilhelm saw Crusch with a look of disbelief, gripping the sharp sword in her abdomen. Wilhelm unhesitatingly took the second sword from his waist with his left hand, severed her, and then kicked her away.
"To wield a sword against your liege without hesitation, can you comprehend how unreasonable your actions are?"
Pandora stood on the first floor where the 'Crusch' corpse had just been, tilting her head as she inquired.
Wilhelm surveyed his surroundings and saw Ferris clutching her heart with a look of relief, and Crusch nodding to him beside her. Wilhelm's sword-gripping hand finally stopped trembling.
"Ah! Are you relieved knowing nothing happened? It looks like your heart just now must have felt the same pain as when you cut someone."
Pandora noticed Wilhelm's subtle movements and showed a delighted expression.
"Leave this place to me."
Wilhelm walked down the stairs step by step. Confirming that he could not see through [Vainglory]'s disguise and unwilling to let the previous event become reality, Wilhelm exuded astonishing fighting spirit, intending to face the enemy alone.
"Please calm down. If we talk nicely, we can understand each other."
"I have nothing to discuss with fiends like you, and the [Witch's Regret] is impossible for you to obtain. I leave this place to you, Wilhelm!"
"I see. That is your decision, then."
Pandora spread her hands and smiled with flushed cheeks, and then,
"Hoo, AHHHHHH—!!"
Wilhelm the Sword Demon rushed forward with a loud yell.
The sword slashed across a neck, pierced a heart, and cut through a torso. In contrast to his hearty roar, Wilhelm's attack was practically an art form. Every strike was executed with the minimum amount of movement to complete the kill, while also preserving space to dodge any attack from any direction.
"This really is… I respect your… will…"
Wilhelm's hand movements became faster and faster, and the dormant killing techniques in his body were being gradually awakened.
Wilhelm the Sword Demon excelled not in large demon beast subjugation, but in battlefield slaughter. He was the Sword Ogre whose enemies on endless battlefields trembled at his name.
"But please… understand me… In order to… achieve… my long-cherished wish…"
But Pandora's life seemed truly endless. An ordinary person facing this scene might hesitate, but Wilhelm, who lived in an era of turmoil, had seen too many bizarre and tricky individuals, and those tricky individuals eventually all died.
"The… choice… of… means…"
In that instant, the entire world in Wilhelm's eyes began to distort. As if plunging into the deep sea, or perhaps suspended in the air, the world in his sight became unclear.
"Did you know?"
Pandora, pinned to the wall by a sword, smiled.
"The miasma surrounding a Witch can kill people?"
A familiar feeling came from behind him—the feeling from the first time he met Echidna in the Sanctuary. No, to be precise, it far exceeded that time, but Subaru, who had met the Witches in the Sanctuary, instantly shook off the nauseating feeling.
"Beatrice!!!"
Subaru turned and faced Pandora with the embraced Beatrice, while summoning her with their contract. Beatrice, being a Great Spirit who had lived for 400 years, barely managed to break free from the nauseating feeling using her experience with Echidna, and then used magic on Pandora without hesitation.
Pandora looked surprised at the two who had broken free from her miasma, but she continued her action. She raised her hand, Mana converged, her Authority amplified, and then she unhesitatingly attacked Wilhelm, who had not yet fully escaped the Witch's miasma, with
a blow to his head. Pandora's movement was so gentle, so full of love, that by the time Wilhelm's body instinctively sensed the danger, there was no time left to react.
"This really is…"
But Pandora's attack passed through Wilhelm's body. Before Pandora could finish her words of praise, Wilhelm suddenly turned and swung his sword, splitting the Pandora who had passed through him in half, then looked frantically at Subaru.
At the same time, Subaru felt his hairs stand on end. While throwing the dizzy Beatrice in his arms towards Ferris, he turned around and drew the sword from his waist. Subaru noticed a figure completely enveloped in a black robe darting towards him from the staircase corner. The sword in his hand silently sliced through the air. With just one glance, Subaru knew that the strength of the person before him was not inferior to Wilhelm's.
"What!"
Subaru used his sword to block the figure's longsword strike, while using the force of the opponent's swing to leap backward. But the figure rotated their body along the sword's trajectory, extended a long leg to hook the flying Subaru, then struck the bridge of the pulled-back Subaru's nose with the knee of the other leg, and then, grabbing Subaru's right hand, used Subaru's own sword to deflect the One-Hundred Man Slash swung by Crusch.
—Wrath, no!
In the instant of their exchange, Subaru identified the woman, then denied the possibility of her being Sirius. Subaru, who had lost his balance, saw the thrust representing death coming for him.
"Heeyah—!!"
A spirited voice rang out. A blue magical barrier blocked the fatal thrust. Mimi, the strongest vice-captain of the Iron Fang, grabbed Subaru's hand.
"Thanks! You saved me."
"Tivey. Hetaro."
Mimi shouted while pulling Subaru upward. At the same time, she erected three magical barriers, larger in scale than the one before, blocking the staircase between the woman and the two of them.
Crack~~~
The sound of glass breaking, then a sticky liquid splashed onto Subaru's face.
"Sister!!!" x2
Anxious and grief-stricken shouts, then a strong wind came from behind, and Subaru felt himself flying in the air.
"Subaru! Give her to me."
Subaru subconsciously opened his eyes and saw the staircase shattering under the enraged attack of the Tivey brothers. The sticky feeling on his hand and Ferris's loud shout also made Subaru understand what had just happened, so Subaru instantly took action.
"Beatrice!"
Subaru said, throwing Mimi towards Ferris, who was falling to the first floor. The floating magic landed on Mimi as Subaru had hoped. At the same time, Subaru pulled out the whip from his waist, wrapped it around the railing on the second floor, and yanked hard. As he ascended, he stretched out his hand and caught Beatrice in mid-air.
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