His laughter shredded her heart. Scenes played out in her mind that appeared and disappeared as Rajas spoke. It was the sight of those who met an agonizing end. How painful would it have been? How much would they have put up with? How much did they despair? The empty eyes of those who had died for her gazed at her. Voices of the phantoms that doesn’t exist seeped into her heart.
“Nonsense… father… everyone…”
“Do you see now? Do you see what happened in your home and the pitiful end of your beloved ones? Hahahahah!”
“How dare you… how dare…!!”
“Are you angry? Are you unable to contain your anger? Swordman of Noshias, this is your punishment. It is a fitting punishment for running away every time.”
“UAAAAAAAARRRGHH!!”
She rushed at Rajas who was saying that she was the cause of it all. It was a strike with all her spirit. It was an attack without a form nor balance. It was almost a foolish frontal strike that lost all shape due to rage and chaotic emotions.
“How boring.”
But it was deflected. Rajas’ fist deflected the sword and more mocking words flew her way. Everything was insufficient. Her sword. Her emotions. Her shouts. Everything.
“Kuugh!”
But it wasn’t over yet. It was when she clenched her teeth to deliver another strike.
“―”
With a sneering voice, aura that had been circulating in Rajas’ hand quickly expanded.
― It was
“Uuu….uuu…”
Despair that seem to sap the strength from her entire body revived.
The scene she had watched multiple times from Rajas’ hand passed in her mind like a phantasmagoria. Her spirit, which had been driven by rage up until this point collapsed. This was that magic. The reason why Rajas was called the “Demon Chief”. It was Rajas’ ultimate magic that disintegrated a fortress without a trace in a middle of battle from that time.
A crimson coagulated mass expanded to form a bead big enough to swallow a grown man ― and maintained its form. It stopped momentarily like a calm ocean before a storm, and started to shake as if it was the signal for its release.
There was no way to dodge it. It was powerful enough to destroy an entire fortress. It was not an attack one could dodge due to its wide area of effect. Only thing she could do was draw as much power from the spirit to protect herself.
― and a dark tidal wave swallowed her whole.
“Uuu aaaaahhhh!!”
Ominous dark energy surrounded her. It felt everything was being destroyed. It felt everything was being taken away. Amidst darkness that seem to prophesize the end, all five senses went away.
…. And after what felt like an eternity, everything around her was gone. Trees, rocks, the adventurer’s corpses, that girl’s corpse, everything.
“Ah, ugh...huk…!”
She could withstand the attack. But what’s left was only her battered body after having spent all her strength. It was the same as before. A repeat. Only her, who possessed strong spirit power, survived. Carrying only the burden of guilt and pain of a survivor.
Her entire body was pulled as if it was pinned to midair. Then.
“Let me go ― Kuuh!”
A fist found its mark on her stomach. A heavy strike from an arm as thick as a log broke through the weakened spirit defense and impacted her intestines.
“Not yet.”
Rajas, filled with gratification, raised a corner of his mouth and a flurry of fists commenced at the same time. Countless strikes. Countless strikes without an end. The boulder like fists all found their mark. The pain-filled moans flowed out from her mouth every time the fist struck. Only sound she could make was pain-filled moans that pleaded to stop.
In the end, she threw up everything in her stomach. Then her body was discarded onto the ground like a piece of tissue.
“Ha ugh, ha… ugh…”
She lay flat on the ground writhing and drooling as she opened her mouth to breathe. It was as if she became a caterpillar, no, something even lesser.
Everything was painful. It was painful. Her heart hurt even more than her body. Physically and mentally. After withstanding countless attacks from Rajas that slowly gnawed at her heart, she couldn’t move her body. She couldn’t put her strength into anything. She couldn’t think anything. She wanted to give up on everything.
But Rajas didn’t stop his attacks.
“How fitting.”
“Ugh, uhhhh…..”
“Did you try to protect others with only that kind of strength?”
A question flew at her while she was trying to stand up, using the sword as a support. It was meant to make her think about it, but there was no need to think about it. There was no meaning in thinking about it either. Because―
“So, were you able to protect them?”
She already knew it.
“If you could go back in time, do you think you can change the outcome?”
She already knew. So―
“That’s right. You can’t protect anything. Not a single person.”
― please, stop….
“Huuu… huk…”
Everything was as Rajas said. Not just her comrades from back home, but she couldn’t protect the merchants as well. Even if she went back in time, it would have been a repeat. That despair, those tears, she couldn’t stop them.
She