RATH 97
TL: Eevee

11. Not a myth, but a legend (10)

#11 Their story: Risen de Roa’s story.

All of a sudden I started getting really pissed off with something.

And the cause of it, that damn Nerkia’s face, started circling around inside my mind’s eye.

‘Hm? Sorry, I can’t hear the sounds of a solo without a girlfriend?’
‘Once the night study ends, I’m going to have a lot of lovey-dovey fun with my lover~’
‘Hm? Should I ask my girlfriend to introduce you to a girl? Well, of course it’s not going to be any guarantee!’
‘Hahahaha’

I’d never heard Nerkia say these things himself, but oddly enough I heard them in Nerkia’s voice, distinctly enough so that I grit my teeth hard enough for me to be able to hear the grinding of my jaws, but right now I had to fight against the enemy in front of me.

“You tried to kill me for something that was how long agooooo!”

“I don’t need to fight her?”

I didn’t know why, but a small girl wearing the Marcis uniform was swinging her blade against the Young Lady of the Nermia family.

It was the first time I’d seen her, but her strikes were fast enough that Lady Nermia had to roll on the ground to dodge them.

As I watched her swing her sword without using a single trace of magic despite being a Marcis student, I said what came to mind.

“Oi, for some reason I really want to kill Nerkia as fast as I can, and the distraction is getting knifed by her ally. Let’s hurry and kill Nerkia and gap it.”

And the others also nodded to my words in agreement.

“Mm, all of a sudden I wanted to kill Nerkia as well.”
“It seems that it wasn’t me that really wanted to off Pres all of a sudden.”
“This is God’s will. God has unified our hearts as one in order to bring divine justice down onto Nerkia.”
“Yes, this is God’s decree. Because Nerkia is a traitor who rebelled against god! He deserves to die.”

All of our opinions were in alignment.

Judging by Lady Nermia’s screeching as she dodged her enemy’s sword, she wouldn’t have room to care about us for a while.

“Then, let’s go!”

At my words, everyone brought out a summon and began running over to where Lady Aris was.

Those who didn’t have a summon suitable for transport was riding double with those that did.

Now, what should I do once I meet Nerkia?

-Of course I should kill him. Loki, do you have anything decent worth using?
-Hmm… from what I know, traditionally, a bamboo spear(1) is the tool of choice to use against a couple?

Bamboo spear… bamboo spear…

What is this echo that resonated through my soul.

They say that all the old folks’ words had a good reason behind them.

And the thing called the bamboo spear was echoing through my soul.

Alright, let’s stab Nerkia with a bamboo spear!

-There’s no bamboo near here. Is there anything similar?
-Hm? Similar… ah, I do have something a bit like it…
-What is it?
-Hmm… to cut a long story short, a long time ago, out of my friend’s sons, there was a really annoying kid among them.
-What’s with the backstory all of a sudden?
-It’s not that long so listen. Anyways, that kid’s mom was boasting all about how she’d gotten all the things in the world to vow not to harm him.
-And?
-It was annoying as hell so how would I make that annoying face into a crying one, I wondered, and what do you know, I got a juicy tidbit of information that there was a single plant she hadn’t managed to get an oath from. The mistletoe.
-And you killed him with that?
-Yep, and I gave his little brother the plant to give to him, and it killed him. And so, by killing an unkillable god, a small mistletoe branch came to obtain the power to kill gods. And that’s how the Mystletainn, the God-Killing Spear was born!

The moment I listened, I felt, ‘this was it!’

And a spear that even killed an unkillable god!

Kah, a stab for you, a stab for them, a stab for everyone!

-That’s it, give me that!
-Yep, it’s not bamboo, but it’s made of wood, so it should be somewhat similar.

As I clutched the Mystletainn that Loki summoned, I began running with all my power and soon caught sight of Nerkia.

“Die, Nerkiaaaaaaaaaa!”

A throw with the greatest speed and the greatest power!

-You idiot, didn’t they teach you at school that ambushes were supposed to be acted on with your mouths shut?
-Ah?!

And my perfect throw, was forewarned by my scream of despair.

And of course, Nerkia avoided my full-power throw of the bamboo spear.

#12 Their story: a certain student council president’s story.

I saw the stick flying towards me at a fast speed.

It looked kind of pointy, but it was so thin.

To the point where I wondered if I would even get hurt by getting hit by a stick like that.

But why? My instincts were screaming at me to dodge it.

“Well, since Risen was the one who threw it….”

Nothing harmed by being careful… I thought as I dodged the stick.

Boooooooooommmm!

A building behind me was ‘vaporised.’

“Eh?”
“Huh?”
“What?”

At the unrealistic sound coming from the stick, Lady Aris, I and even Reedan who was emitting an aura of darkness’s heads automatically turned around.

“You know, Lady Aris. I believe there was a building behind me?”
“There was.”
“There was.”
“There was, right? Where did it go…”

As I looked at the place where there were no longer any traces of a building, I saw a stick that had been flying towards me only seconds ago.

A thin stick that looked as if it might snap from a single touch.

Had Risen added in his mana to create an effect like that?

That was obviously impossible.

It was impossible that that stick could endure such a high density of mana added to it, and even if it could, even a swordsmaster or grand magician would find it impossible to control that power so cleanly only the building was destroyed.

If the additional condition that the stick was undamaged in the process was added, it was doubtful if even dragons could pull it off!

“Meaning, that stick is one hell of an item… are you seriously trying to kill me, Risen?!”
“Damn it, you survived after all. Why are you asking the obvious?”

As Risen clicked his tongue, it was obvious on his face he was seriously regretting having missed the shot.

“Even if we’re being protected by magic in the imperial festival it has a limit, you know? That right now was way beyond the limits?”
“Of course. Even if that’s what it looks like, it’s the god-killing spear that can even kill the unkillable! It’s a bamboo spear I brought out specifically for you!”
“Is that something to be proud of?!”

Bamboo spear. For some reason that name gave me the chills.

A feeling that for some reason, I’d be done in by a single shot.

No, I’d already seen more than enough evidence of its firepower.

If I got hit by that, I’d be more than just dead, I’d be completely erased from this plane of existence.

“So obediently get hit and die!”
“Would you?!”

He was serious.

This little shit was seriously trying to kill me.

An anger blazing fiercely that I simply couldn’t understand the cause of.

And seeing that rage, Reedan smirked and added fuel to the fire.

“Risen, did you know? He said ‘girls‘.’”
“What?”
“Girlfriend’s‘.”
“Yeah, so what.”
“Now, put your hand out. Yep, like that. Now spread out all the fingers on your hand. Yep. That’s it.”

As Risen made a face as if he couldn’t understand his wide-open hand, Reedan smiled brightly and said.

“That’s how many girlfriends Nerkia has.”
“Alright, you’re fucking dead, Nerkia!”

All of a sudden, the small stick was in Risen’s hands again.

When I whipped my head around, the stick that had destroyed an entire building had disappeared.

“Wait, I plead my defence!”
“Shut up, enemy of men! Accept the judgement of justice!”
“Holy shit!”

I threw my body away from the stick that came flying at me once again.

When I looked at the ground where the stick landed this time, there was a hole, small in width but deep enough I couldn’t see the bottom of it.

Very well. Now I have no choice either.

“O King, kill him!”
“I don’t want to step out for something like this but… Oh dear, this is dangerous for me as well!”

Even the Spirit King of Lightning blanched as he dodged the flying stick.

I instantly used a wind elemental to form a wind wall, and made a earth wall using an earth elemental but the stick flew through them both without the slightest hint of resistance!

“Urk?!”

Just as I barely dodged it and attacked Risen through the Spirit King, Aris’s sword aura came flying at me in the gap it created.

“Did you forget you were fighting against me, Pres!”
“I’m kind of fighting for my life right now, can’t you please forgive me?!”

I rolled on the ground to avoid the sword aura.

At the same time I used an earth elemental to alter the gradient of the earth to quickly lift myself up and take a stance.

“Very well, I forgive you for betraying the school as the student council president.”

The sword aura began to fade away from Lady Aris’s sword.

“Thank you, Ari…”
“But I cannot forgive you for having a lover by yourself, you enemy of women!”
“Damn it, you a solo as well, milady?!”

But along with the young lady’s enraged voice, the reduced sword aura flared explosively back up.

“Letia-style, Fifth Movement. Army Destruction.”

The twin swords in Lady Aris’s hands began to flow in a seamless dance.

One layer, two layers. Three layers.

The overlapping sword auras began to sweep over me like a wave.

“Isn’t this too much!”
“It’s an attack designed to destroy armies with small numbers. Since you’re the Elemental Army, it’s alright to use an attack aimed to destroy an army!”

Damn it, even Lady Aris had been Risened.

Just at the beginning of the first semester she’d been acting confidently and elegantly as befitting of one of the Ten Great Families…

Not a single trace of that remained anymore!

Although I had to survive first!

“Earth!”

Brute-force blocking sword ki with elementals is impossible unless it’s a King-class spirit at least.

And right now, Lionel the Lightning Spirit King had his hands more than full just warding off Risen.

Therefore, I had no other choice but to dodge that wave of sword ki!

‘I… can only believe in you guys!’

Every time I created an earth wall, it was destroyed by the waves of sword aura.

But right now, I wasn’t simply creating earth walls alone.

Using the power of elementals, I wasn’t simply forming magic earth walls, but forming bulwarks by pushing up the earth.

Meaning, I was pushing out the dirt from underneath my feet.

“Die!”

Lady Aris’s sharp shrills accompanied the waves of sword ki that threatened to swamp me.

But… if I get hit by this I’m actually going to die, is there nothing happening on the administrators’ side?

“Hup!”

As I slipped downwards, what I fell into was a fairly deep tunnel that had been dug out.

Whbambabababababam!

Explosions rang out from above me!

If I’d gotten hit by that then not even fragments of my body would have been left. The sword ki storm had subsided, but I didn’t dare stick my head out.

“Is it over?”
“Damn it, that was the number one phrase that Professor Nicerwin told us not to say when we thought the enemy might be dead!”
“Ah shit, Nerkia got hit with the revival spell. He’s not dead!”

Judging by the cacophony up top, it seemed that Risen had come with more allies.

“Let’s see…”

Using the power of an earth elemental, I made a dirt doll the shape and size of a human and tossed it out the hole.

Thump.

“Damn it, is it a fake?”

What fell back down with a light sound was the dirt doll’s head.

Was it due to the wrath that Reedan had spread out, or was it simply their pure anger?

No, whatever it was, it didn’t matter.

Those things were trying to kill me for the sole reason that I had a girlfriend.

“I need to run.”

This place was already crawling with bloodthirsty murderers.

The god-killing spear, Mystletainn.

And in addition to that, a Spirit King of emotion as well as a horde of Yugrasia-trained summoners are all out for my blood.

This wasn’t a situation I could overcome just because I contracted a Spirit King!

Unless I made contracts with the majority of the high-ranking elementals of the four base elements, there was no way for me to avoid this land of death!

“Tunnels. The only way out is tunnels.”

I heard the voice of the Spirit King come back saying even dodging Risen’s attacks was getting hard now.

Once the Spirit King is desummoned, if I’m not out of here while I still can’t resummon him, I’m dead.

And just as I was digging a hole using earth elementals as fast as I could…

“It’s a hole! The pres is in the hole!”
“Don’t go in without thinking, it could be a trap.”
“Water, remember Day 1! Can anyone here use summon a water elemental?”
“Those damn lunatics!”

The water was catching up to me faster than I could tunnel out.

At first it was just lapping at my pants but now my upper body was starting to get wet as well.

“Drowning after decapitation!”

After a getaway with my life as the gamble, I managed to reach the location where the Arucia students were just before I fell into critical danger.

“Die!”
“So what if you’re older?!”

Although it was still pandemonium.