Chapter 1
Chapter 1 Dark clouds holding over Haimura Moroha
Sponsored Content
The sky was covered by clouds akin to thin smoke.
The atypical appearance screamed, turning its back on it.
――Light!? Where’s the light!?
An unpleasant piercing cry that felt as if his brain burst.
It wasn’t just dissonance that weren’t words either, but telepathy that somehow transmitted its emotions that wished for something, right on the verge of insanity.
Moroha instinctively frowned.
The rooftop of the building where cold wind blew became the decisive battlefield against Charles.
He sharpened his gaze even more and glared at the monster that kept shouting with a piercing cry.
The headless evil entity descended from the sky.
A thing that wasn’t human at all, but similar in shape and size to humans.
It wore an extremely monstrous dress as if it were made of snake skin. Instead of legs, countless large snakes wriggled from inside the charmingly spread skirt.
Its alluring, white slender hands danced, as if inviting him to come.
Where did this unpleasant shrieking voice come from?
Was it useless, even if he asked the principle to the enemy metaphysical that distorted the whole creation by satana?
A light suddenly began to converge on the empty part of the neck――on the place equivalent to a mouth if it were a human.
The light rapidly increased its brilliance and exploded when he thought “what will start?”
The ardent light surged in a straight line.
A Laser Breath was fired from the nonexistent mouth.
It aimed at the building Moroha was standing on, attacking him directly.
Evading it by jumping――was impossible, even if he wanted to.
If he were to dodge it, he didn’t know what would happen to the building.
Piercing it would be the worse, it would be no surprise that the buildings nearby would also be pierced. That was the degree of pressure he felt.
If he were to overlook it, this would turn into the very hell in an instant.
Therefore, Moroha didn’t choose the path of evasion!
– Gohou allows any kind of heat to come near me.
He chanted and moved the left hand and right feet at the same time.
He drew a simple diagram and instantly completed two engravings of heat resistance, the Dark Art Red Hex.
Two layers of red light wall were stretched around Moroha.
– Come.
Then he crossed his arms and received the direct hit of the Laser Breath head-on.
– O… ooooooooh.
A shout escaped from Moroha’s throat.
He suffered pain from the outrageous amount of heat and roared to increase Taimatsuu.
The high heat, which couldn’t be prevented even with Yin Yang which doubled the protection by the Light Technique on top of the two layer protection by Dark Art, turned Moroha’s sleeves into ashes and created blisters on the skin of both arms.
Moroha showed that he completely endured even the maximum sound attack of Fortress with just Blue Hex and Taimatsuu.
Moroha mustered even more prana and mana,
– ――Raaaaaah
Together with the war cry, he let the last air remaining in his lungs come out.
The three layer protection was raised to the limits, he barely managed to stop the Laser Breath.
Despite being worn-out, he abruptly glared at the evil entity in the air while taking heavy breaths.
The headless metaphysical calmly began to amass a second light in the nonexistent oral cavity.
(If I catch the next one, I’ll be done for…)
Moroha’s battle intuition told him so.
(If I let it shoot that, it’ll be hopeless. Before that――I’ll cut it off)
Moroha’s battle experience calculated instantly.
He brandished Saratiga with both hands, let the highest-powered and pumped prana run into it, filtered it, and swung it down, transforming it into Ars Magna.
The stroke of the sword that cut the empty space severed the cloudy weather.
The straight slashing line ran vertically in the sky and the evil entity and everything floating on its way was bisected.
But.
It slipped.
The human-type metaphysical revolved in the air as if jesting and escaped to the side.
The long line that tore and cut the sky struck at nothing and missed fruitlessly, it just grazed the side of the evil entity.
– What a nuisance.
Moroha clicked his tongue, his slashing attack which had all of his might was dodged.
The light disappeared from the「mouth」of the evil entity revolving in the air, and although the obstruction of the Laser Breath was a success, Moroha’s Mars ended up being easily dodged too.
――Ah, Charles! Charles! Come to save me, fast! It’s so dark and cold in here!
The evil entity manipulated both arms like a child recklessly striking the keyboard of a toy piano while raising hell.
Each time the giant snakes spat up flame balls, the flame balls became soccer ball-sized bullets raining incessantly on the building Moroha was standing on.
Countless and fast flame balls closed in.
Moroha clasped his breath and put his breathing in order.
Rather than following the flame balls with his eyes and perceiving and dealing with each of them, he grasped all the phenomena all at once and widely fit them into his field of vision.
Namely, enlightenment. The deepest level of the method of seeing them「all」as「one」 .
– Shura.*
Sponsored Content
*TN: One of the many translations for this word is “carnage”, which I may start using in the future.
He let the sword move lively together with a sharp vigor and cleared away the flame balls.
Each stroke of the sword bisected two, three of them at once, he cut all the approaching flame balls like a precision machine.
When the sword was affected by Moroha’s technique, it transformed into an impregnable shield.
He tried to easily endure the hail and rain of flame balls.
(But… I’m just being nailed down)
No matter how splendid his defense was, he couldn’t win as long as he were on the defensive.
――I feel your nostalgic smell! I feel your warmth! I feel you right next to me!
However, the evil entity just wanted to wave its hands as if throwing a tantrum, increasing the number of flame balls fired.
There was no sign of it being exhausted from firing or getting tired of attacking.
The uncommon satana began to overflow from its small body and started to cover all that was around it.
The thickness of the clouds increased until it became disquieting, their color was blackening rapidly.
With this, no matter how much time passed, he wouldn’t be able to turn the situation and go for the offensive.
Unlike other Light Techniques, Moroha’s Mars took time to amass prana.
If he disturbed it with mobility, he could notice a gap――unfortunately, there was a reason he couldn’t do that.
Moroha was protecting people behind him now.
Charles, the person whose right arm was severed, glared at the evil entity while sweating cold.
Chloe, the other person with a beige disheveled hair, devoted herself to healing and joining the right arm of her master.
If Moroha stepped away, they would end up becoming the victims of the flame balls.
Really,
――I don’t find him! Where? Where is he!? Wheeeere’s my beloved Charles!?
The flame balls fired by the evil entity seemed to get chaotic, its aim was exactly converging to one point.
It didn’t seem to be targeting Moroha, but Charles that Moroha was protecting.
– What on earth is the meaning of this…?
The human-type metaphysical simply and abruptly came attacking him? No, the situation wasn’t that simple.
In the meantime, and without ever stopping his powers of concentration, Moroha couldn’t help but wonder.
Behind him, Charles groaned, overcome with surprise.
– … Flavie? Is it really you, Flavie?
An “I can’t believe it” feeling was clearly felt from his tone of voice.
As Moroha protected him from the barrage,
– Isn’t that the mere shadow of your lover that was kidnapped 5 years ago?
– … I don’t know. … But… but, I can hear those screams as Flavie’s screams.
As if he couldn’t bear it anymore, Charles raised his voice for an instant.
– Could it be? That I’m the only one who can hear her? Is this some type of mental attack of that metaphysical?
– No. To me, those screams definitely sound like Flavie. They feel like her breathing…
Chloe, who was devoted to heal him by Dark Arts, barely stopped her hands and replied.
– It would have been strange if that were a mental attack because those have no effect on me.
Moroha opined, Charles and Chloe held their tongues for a moment.
An affirming silence.
He didn’t get what the reason or phenomenon was, however, that evil entity and Flavie had some sort of nexus.
– … I don’t know. … Why, is she like that? … Why is this the outcome? … Why? … Why? Is this… is this the prophecy the old woman was talking about…? “The seventh person will lead me to you”, was this what that meant…?
The words of Charles gradually showed signs of incoherent muttering.
Despite the emotional shock, the loss of blood from the severed arm wasn’t common.
He probably had fever.
– Don’t be unreasonable. Sleep a bit.
– Guh…
The sound of Charles’s teeth being clenched was heard.
Maybe he was trying to keep his consciousness, going against Moroha’s words.
Before the evil entity appeared, Charles was just called a「coward」during the mortal combat with Moroha; he intentionally tried to show stubbornness.
However, Kuromas weren’t corporeally different from ordinary people.
Without being able to go against the fall of his consciousness due to blood loss, he dejectedly indicated that his whole body was losing strength. That’s good, Moroha nodded.
– Quickly put his arm together and run away. I’ll protect you both… until then.
He resolved himself.
Moroha fired himself up and cleared away the incoming torrent of flame balls with great vigor altogether――completely healing the nerves to the point blood circulated would take days, no matter how good the Healing the Scars of the practitioner was.
It would be fine if only his arm was attached in this place for now, however, what if Chloe needed more than that?
It seemed that it would require a ton of effort to protect them during all that time from that eerie evil entity, but lamenting and the like couldn’t be said.
Above all, Moroha was also concerned about the real identity of that evil entity.
He knew nothing about that woman called Flavie, he had no connection to her like Charles, but he wanted to see her with his own eyes.
He just put both feet on the ground.
His spine straight, perpendicular to gravity. The posture of an absolute perfect Natural Stance.
All the unnecessary strain was cut out, the speed of Moroha’s sword was further increased and his swordsmanship became smoother.
The fire of the flame balls intensified moment by moment, but Moroha optimized his movements every second to deal with them.
The fierce offense of the evil entity and the defense that should be called the barrier of Moroha’s sword competed, creating a stalemate.
Yes――they finally competed.
Sponsored Content
When the pressure of the flame balls no longer increased, Moroha shouted, on the verge of giving up.
– Satsuki! I count on you!
– Leave it to me!
As if responding immediately, a sweet voice tickled Moroha’s eardrums.
Satsuki, who was allowed to hide and stand by for a short time, appeared on the rooftop of the building next to him.
She readied her fists with a nervous look.
She strained herself a bit too much.
At the edge of his「widened」 field of vision, Moroha noticed that Satsuki was clasping her fists way too strongly and that they were trembling.
He loudly advised her as he cleared away the flame balls with Saratiga.
– Just do your signature move as always! You can do it!
– O-okay, Nii-sama!
Satsuki took a deep breath and the trembling of her fists stopped.
She slowly gathered prana in her fists to ascertain the foundation she herself came to build up.
And swung them upwards with all her strength to incite the evil entity.
A windstorm completely filled with Satsuki’s golden prana broke out all of a sudden and blew away, becoming an ascending air current.
Ancestral Arts Light Technique Jupiter.
Since that kind of weapon didn’t pass through and the power dispersed, the gust of destruction didn’t reach the evil entity. However, it still blew away a percentage of the barrage of flames.
Furthermore, Satsuki released Jupiter 2 times, 3 times and so on to cover him.
This continuous powerful technique could be done by his「younger sister」whose amount of prana was extraordinary.
– Alright…
Seeing that the pressure of the barrage decreased noticeably, Moroha shouted with exultation.
Now, the counterattack.
Without carelessness, he thought of a plan in his head while cutting and bringing down the flame balls like a precision machine.
Moroha’s Mars was a one-hit kill that cut even the world.
The target was far above his head, but by cutting the concept of “distance”, he would reach it.
However, a slash was no more than a slash, if it was evaded, it wouldn’t be able to show its absolute cutting power.
It was a one-hit kill sword, but not an unavoidable sword.
(This thing is in a rank different from the rest…)
Even though Moroha had fought countless powerful metaphysicals in the past.
He even killed a monster with an unprecedented size that might not be seen again called Fortress.
This was more than any of those――
This evil entity――with a size no different from humans and that could be called as tiny, was certainly formidable.
Metaphysicals were generally huge, with terrifying destructive power and endowed with extraordinary vitality.
Those were real monsters one could never face alone unless one was an S-Rank Savior.
However, they weren’t fast.
Even if he showered and showered them with《Ancestral Arts》 and his characteristic toughness, they wouldn’t sink easily, but up to now, there was no metaphysical that could evade such attack.
Because now they knew that, the White Knight Organization drilled them to reach powerful techniques with an emphasis on firepower when fighting metaphysicals at least.
Now that Moroha held a completely awakened Saratiga in his hand, he would be able to slaughter Fortress if it attacked again with a stroke of Mars. With that body and slow movement, there was no reason why Moroha’s slash wouldn’t hit it.
But a logic like that wasn’t applicable to this nimble human-type metaphysical.
Should he continuously release Mars without caring about if it kept being dodged?
――No.
This technique needed time for each and every blow, it was indispensable to polish prana.
Above all, the feeling that this was a technique that shouldn’t be used indiscriminately was stuck deep in his heart.
To say nothing of relying on it, it was no good to hang onto this thing only.
In fact, Moroha had never seen Flaga use it in his dreams.
Only in that dream in which he got mad because his younger sister was kidnapped, then he transformed into an evil god, let his soul swayed by hatred run wildly and chopped up the world.
Only that crossed his mind, and still, he got goosebumps.
He had a strong feeling that he didn’t want to try doing that ever again.
(In that case… what about this)
Moroha thrust the index finger of his left hand at the evil entity in the sky.
– Write――
Now that the burden of dealing with the barrage had decreased, he could turn his concentration to a superior Dark Art.
Sparks scattered in the back of his head.
Inspired to not lose to the high-class technique, to the amazingness of Charles’s Dark Arts shown off to him, he echoed as if hurrying up.
– Everyone Dies and return to skull Now, start the ceremony of cremation…
The chanting was as usual.
But the spelling was turned over to the opposite direction and reflected.
From left to right and not from right to left.
He put mirrored characters into written form.
Chloe caught her breath behind him.
– Is it… possible for you to even use anti-soul?*
*TN: kanji reading is hangon (reviving the dead).
Another name was――the method to make soul language turn over.
Moroha applied some treatment to his specialty, Incinerate, letting a freezing flame manifest.
The abnormality that disturbed the laws of physics by bringing forth a flame from nothing.
It warped the whole creation and created a flame inexistent in this world.
A part of the mana, which was artificially made to run wildly by anti-soul, was regurgitated and the blood vessels in Moroha’s left arm stood out, practically rupturing everywhere.
However, the power of this hit was enormous.
A swollen bright red flame twisted like a rising dragon and was released.
It was shot at the cloudy weather while freezing the atmosphere.
He attacked the evil entity staying there.
The snake skin-tanned-like dress, both arms and the large snakes taking the place of legs were all affected by the frost, being dyed pure white.
Both arms shook frantically, the cluster of large snakes raged and the human-type metaphysical suffered in agony.
The barrage of flames that rained incessantly without a break suddenly came to an end.
An opportunity to win.
Moroha grasped Saratiga’s handle with both arms without caring about the hemorrhage of his left arm.
He would lose the opportunity because he had to polish prana for the next Mars.
That’s why he bent both legs to jump higher, to a point-blank range with Godlike Movement.
At that moment.
– Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiya!
A loud shout reverberated from behind.
A fierce gust of wind drifted, making the bangs of Moroha flutter.
He saw!
The figure of a young man who appeared from nowhere, bravely soaring in the air.
The beautiful form of the thrust that used the right fist. Polished movements. A thoroughly forged body axis.
Exactly like the both extremes of a functional beauty. Moreover, he was heroic.
Wearing a dazzling prana, he left a trail that looked like a green comet, closed in on the evil entity in the blink of an eye, took advantage of the gap made by Moroha and punched its right shoulder.
It wasn’t to the level of an ordinary punch.
The shoulder of the evil entity exploded, scattering in all directions and the right arm flew, tearing to pieces.
The man jumped back with the recoil of the thrust and fell, carrying out a backwards somersault and landed soundlessly on the same building as Moroha.
An Asian of unknown age.
He looked like a boy of the same age as Moroha, or maybe like a much older man.
His eyes were thin as thread, he looked like he was smiling, and in fact, he couldn’t read at all what he was thinking. A mysterious appearance indeed.
He wore a traditional continental Asian costume called doufuku (道服)and alternately put his hands in the thick cuffs.
A willow-like appearance that idly eluded any wind.
He had a calm demeanor, which was completely different from the way his very flashy entrance was.
Who was he?
Satsuki opened her mouth.
Before Moroha asked for his identity, Chloe said, being so confused that she almost ended up stopping the healing.
– Zhixin-dono…. Why is the Deputy of the Chinese Division here…?
From her tone of voice, it was transmitted to him that she was terribly vigilant of this man.
The man called Zhixin, with that smiling face,
– Since this is a question of a follower of Charles-sama, I am reluctant to reply to it immediately. But I think this is not the moment to do such deliberations, is it?
He replied politely but with a rude intent.
In fact, even though Moroha was surprised by the sudden intruder, he remained cautious of the metaphysical in the skies.
Something strange happened to the evil entity that lost its right arm.
It let a darkish sphere peek through the head from the inside of the left side of the chest――just around the heart of a human.
The sphere had the appearance of a black mist, letting a miasma that could be seen with the naked eye drift and the density of the satana, which filled the atmosphere, became increasingly dark. As if「The bad thing」that got inside the sphere began to dissolve, the blackness of the sphere gradually became thinner and the satana, which became miasma, began to overflow in rapid succession.
What was about to start this time?
The answer for that was established right away.
――I cannot afford to die until I see Charles again!
The black sphere pulsated like a heart and a piercing cry resounded in the sky.
「*Drag*」The sounds mixed felt physiologically disgusting, as if internal organs were taken out.
The sounds were of a new arm growing from the destroyed right shoulder.
Furthermore, the dress-looking body surface peeled off and fell, all the tissue that became necrotic by Moroha’s anti-soul style Incinerate was discarded and brand new skin appeared from below.
He didn’t know the reason why, but the injured evil entity achieved a perfect regeneration due to the satana that overflowed from the sphere on the left side of the chest….
– It has the agility of an ordinary Shirogane and the same vitality as the Shanghai Demon kind? Oh dear, it’s a light monster too, isn’t it?
Zhixin made a terrifying comment with a tone that reduced the tension as he kept smiling.
Moroha re-readied his sword and made Naikatsutsuu run in his left arm which got injured by the regurgitation of mana.
He went back to square one.
There was a moment he thought he had the chance to win, but that was quite a naïve hope.
Even the man that「could」be called the Chinese Division Deputy came to assist him, but he didn’t feel very optimistic.
– I’ll make a gap just like before. Can I leave the strike to you?
He talked to Zhixin as he glared at the evil entity.
– Oh? Are you going to fight with me to kill that?
He thought such a thing was decided though.
Zhixin asked, looking surprised.
That reaction felt strange.
– Well, if you are asking me to if I can lend you a hand, then I have no objections, do I? Haimursama?
– Stop with the “sama” already.
– This is nothing extravagant. If I were to be rude to you, an S-Rank, and even if it were a joke, I would be scolded by Xuhu.*
*TN: After looking for a while how his name should be in Chinese, I gave up. Xuhu seems to be a valid name, so I’ll go with that. The name is also the furigana reading for fatherly master.
Should he be trusted since he was polite yet rude at the same time?
Moroha swallowed his frivolous talk and tried to resume the battle.
But――what was the meaning of this?
The evil entity showed no signs of attacking as it performed regeneration.
It was hard to understand because it had no head, but he puffed up with a bit of pride, doing a gesture as if listening carefully the voice that came down from the sky.
– It’s keeping in touch with someone… that’s what it looks to me.
Zhixin had the same impression,
– Is that so? With the metaphysical?
Satsuki asked somewhat uncomfortable to no one in particular,
– It is already obvious that the nature of that thing is completely different from all the metaphysicals. If that is the case, then no matter what happens to it, it will be negated, and we have no data either…
Chloe continued the treatment, and opined without taking her eyes off it.
However,
– Then if it’s really keeping in touch with someone… who’s that someone then?
Nobody was able to reply the reasonable question of Satsuki who came jumping to their building to consult.
Satsuki began to tremble like she were afraid of her own words.
It was clearly the time for an attack, but Moroha hesitated to move rashly.
He wanted to know more about this thing that was completely different from all the metaphysicals.
Zhixin also fixedly stared at the evil entity with his thin eyes, without moving.
While Chloe was right in the middle of the treatment, the evil entity finally began to move.
As soon as it opened its arms, it slowly increased its altitude.
– Eheh!? N-no way…
– The metaphysical is running away?
It was certainly so.
The evil entity gradually accelerated and flew to an even higher place.
And suddenly and exactly at that moment.
– Wait! If you’re really Flavie, answer my voice, even if it’s only once!
It disappeared beyond the cloudy sky as if it hadn’t listen to Chloe’s shout.
– Oh dear, a metaphysical retreating is something unprecedented.
Zhixin wondered exaggeratedly.
As expected, that caused Moroha to be dumbfounded.
How much had he been surprised about the things that had been done since the sudden attack?
Why this metaphysical was riddled with exceptions?
The mystery intensified.
– anyway, we’re safe. That’s good… Right? Right?
Satsuki sunk down to the floor.
Her fighting spirit, which was stretched like a thread, seemed to end up being cut.
– I, guess…. Honestly, I feel like it turned a blind eye to us…
Chloe began to concentrate on the treatment as she showed a relief she couldn’t hide.
Moroha also agreed and sheathed the point of the sword.
Then smiled at his「young sister」who did her best.
I’ll pat her head, he walked up to her and――why?
His path was blocked by Zhixin.
He kept smiling, but he impudently stood in his way.
Moroha stopped his feet and sharpened his eyes.
The seventh S-Rank and the Chinese Division Deputy stood facing each other in silence.
A different kind of tense air than when they were fighting with the evil entity stretched in an instant.
– E-excuse me…?
Satsuki tried to mediate nervously, but she soon realized that in this mood she couldn’t interject, so she held her tongue.
Chloe took a stance which said “I will watch over the course of events”.
– Why didn’t I hear… about why the Chinese Division Deputy was here?
Without relaxing his gaze, Moroha asked with a reasonable tone of voice.
– “Sama” isn’t necessary, is it?
– It’s unnecessary. It’s impolite and I’ll be scolded by the academy teachers.
– You are more amusing than I imagined.
Taking revenge for what happened before, Moroha cracked a joke, and Zhixin seemed to be very amused.
The sharp gaze of Moroha and the impudent gaze of Zhixin clashed, giving off sparks.
The air of an explosive situation flowed.
And.
Zhixin altered his way of speaking and informed in a grave voice.
– Haimura… Morohsama. I will have to restrain you.
Moroha raised an eyebrow.
However, Zhixin continued, pretending to not notice.
– There are suspicions that the mastermind controlling the metaphysical――may be you.
This was a great surprise.
One thing after another.
Moroha put on a complicated face and scratched his head as he glared at a different direction.