Chapter 77

The pitch-black tentacles coiled around her heart began to writhe wildly, as if the 『Book of the Black Goat』 itself were glowing.

“…!”

Breaking free from Dale’s control and running amok, it greedily devoured the black magic emanating from the dark source, using that power as its foundation──.

─ Sistina’s dog, I absolutely cannot forgive you……!

Cystina’s dog.

“……!”

With unspeakable hatred, Shuv uttered the ‘Name of the Goddess’.

Sistina, the sister goddess. I thought she was merely a fabricated deity built up by the people of this world.

‘Not a figment of imagination…?’

Calling out the name of the goddess who should have been, Shuv lifts the hem of her dress.

Sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

The pitch-black tentacles writhing beneath her erupted all at once. Dale had no reason to hesitate either. Leaving behind his screaming heart, ready to burst, and the circle, he accelerated again and again through overclocking.

The Black Sword Death Knights simultaneously thrust off the ground and charged forward.

Toward the ‘Holy Virgin’ enveloping herself in six wings made of light.

The golden seraph.

The true form possessed by the avatar of the Holy Maiden Aurelia.

Just as the world of ideas built by the magician represented his very thoughts, the ideas now projected by the Holy Maiden Aurelia onto her sword, armor, and flesh were her very heart itself.

The goddess’s enforcer. The apostle of fanaticism.

‘Dangerous.’

Dale could sense it instinctively too. That the current situation was far from favorable.

It was the first ‘wall’ Dale had ever felt.

It was different from when he had glimpsed the Black Knight’s power. That man was Dale’s father, and surpassing him felt like an unattainable future, a distant possibility.

But now, the presence of that maiden before Dale. Even if it took the form of a ‘mock duel’, she was a formidable foe whose life could be taken by a moment’s lapse in concentration.

No, the killing intent radiating from her in response to Dale’s provocation was already beyond that of a mock duel.

‘Should I surrender now and end this duel?’

Dale paused to think. His ‘true purpose’ had never been to defeat the Holy Maiden here. Even if victory were the best outcome, a second-best option was prepared for defeat. That had been the original plan all along.

“…No.”

But what filled Dale’s heart, pushed to the edge of the cliff, was the desire to win.

This wasn’t a staged battle on a predetermined scripted stage. The opponent standing before him wasn’t some sacrificial lamb meant to showcase and prove Dale’s talent.

The very chance to clash head-on with that ‘powerhouse beyond the norm’.

Now, where Dale stood was the boundary between life and death. A tightrope where one misstep could send him sliding, losing everything and plummeting into the abyss.

‘Yeah, this is how it should be.’

On that very tightrope, Dale smiled coldly.

His shadow cloak fluttering, leaving Shuv behind, who made no effort to hide his malice. With the ‘Death Knight of the Black Sword’ filling the void horizon, he stood.

Spreading six wings, the Holy Maiden charged forward. Dale too, following the shadows of his cloak, generated ‘Blades of Darkness’.

Clang!

Swords clashed.

Orelia’s golden blade and Dale’s blade of darkness. He barely managed to parry by moving all twelve ‘Shadow Blades’ simultaneously.

That was all. As swordsmen, they weren’t even worthy opponents.

But as Dale’s sword master, Sir Helmut, had once said… merely parrying the first strike was enough.

Until the mage, who had given the knight space, could regroup.

Immediately after, the Death Knight’s black blades surged in from all directions. Furthermore, a barrage of tentacles from ‘Shub’ and the Shadow Lurker poured forth, shielding Dale.

The Holy Maiden had no time to launch her next attack either. She merely spun like a swallow using her six wings, creating distance. Endless pitch-black tentacles plunged down, following the retreating Holy Maiden.

Beneath Shuv’s skirt, the endless torrent of pitch-black tentacles surged forth and swirled.

Each time, the pain felt like my heart was being squeezed, draining my magic. To generate enough magic to endure it again, I accelerated the three circles over and over.

Consciousness blurred within the agony. Yet he understood. Now, the 『Book of the Black Goat』 was not causing a rampage. It was merely a cruel lashing.

To lead him beyond the three circles encircling Dale’s heart.

Circle 4.

Jet-black tentacles wrapped even tighter around the three circles, accelerating relentlessly.

Dale’s third circle was never that of a mere third-circle mage. In terms of the sheer absolute quantity of mana generated, it rivaled that of a sixth-circle mage.

Yet even Dale’s circles, generating such high-concentration magic power in such vast quantities, were failing to properly draw out the power held within the 『Book of the Black Goat』.

─ Not enough, not enough, not enough, utterly insufficient!

Even the sheer volume of magic generated by the legendary Dale could not quench Shub’s thirst. That was why he was determined to force open the ‘next realm’ at any cost.

“Alright, let’s see how far we can go.”

For Dale, too, it was an ending beyond what he could have hoped for.

The Fourth Circle. For a mage, it was a realm beyond that of a ‘proper individual’s realm’. When he attained that very realm, Dale contemplated the secret realm of magic he would behold.

Just as Dale was now, it would never be confined to the realm of an ‘ordinary Fourth Circle’.

Therefore, Dale did not hesitate.

The two walls before Dale. To overcome the walls of the Sacred Maiden Aurelia and the Fourth Circle.

“《Singularity of Radiance》.”

It was then. Aurelia spread her six wings wide.

Her wings of light began to amplify their radiance, like the sun itself. A light so intense it could scorch even the biting cold and darkness swirling through Dale’s world.

Like the herald of dawn illuminating the darkest twilight.

The moment I saw it, I understood. The meaning of that light.

‘Optical amplification by stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation.’

──Laser.

“…!”

Instantly, Dale thrust off the ground and charged forward.

From the six wings, lasers erupted outward in all directions like a barrage of fire.

Death Ray. Concentrated bombardment.

A pillar of light, the kind you’d expect to see in a sci-fi movie, was destroying Dale’s world.

The sight didn’t even elicit a laugh. An overwhelming power that made even Dale’s Death Knight, possessing the might of a hero, feel like mere cannon fodder. What meaning could strategy or tactics possibly hold before this?

None.

Even the jet-black tentacles lashing out at her, even the black blood that scattered and vanished as the tentacles did, failed to reach the baptism of light emanating from the Holy Maiden.

That was what an extraordinary powerhouse truly was.

An overwhelming destructive force capable of overturning the battlefield itself through sheer individual might. The very embodiment of ‘chivalric literature’—something even the people of this world would dismiss as fanciful and laugh off—made possible by this one.

This is it. This is the true form of the powerful foes he had defeated countless times in his past life, and must defeat again.

‘Still insufficient.’

Therefore, at his current level, he cannot reach that existence.

Converging beams of light, sweeping in from all directions, unleashed indiscriminate bombardment. It was like wielding a sword against a weapon straight out of science fiction.

He should have reached it.

Desperately, Shuv’s tentacles fought against the light of annihilation, volunteering as a flesh shield to protect Dale. Meanwhile, Dale’s circle, increasingly exposed, continued to function until it finally ceased altogether.

‘How?’

Lasers are light, and mirrors have the property of reflecting light.

Light refraction. But there was no way a mere mirror could block that high-powered laser.

At that very moment, something flashed through Dale’s mind.

‘LDAL.’

Laser Developed Atmospheric Lens system.

In reality, weapons capable of defending against high-powered lasers were not a concept confined to imagination. Optical weapons that counter laser armaments by forming a layer of hot air to induce light refraction.

‘Worth a shot.’

What Dale knew, but the Holy Maiden did not. Knowledge from another realm.

For Dale, who wielded black and blue magic, generating flames like the mages of the Red Tower was impossible.

But there was no need to burn blazing flames. After all, heat was merely an indicator of the ‘violence of molecular motion’.

Just as coldness signifies the absence of molecular motion, heat and cold are ultimately two sides of the same coin.

Dale froze in place. The light swirling along the Virgin’s wings was aimed at the stationary target.

The light of annihilation targeted Dale, and Dale, too, focused his consciousness without so much as a flicker of movement.

He grasped the flow of the moment, scattering his own magic power while watching the Virgin’s wings of light.

Nothing in this world could outpace light. Yet predicting the movement before the trigger was pulled was possible.

The wings of light amplified their brilliance once more, and…

‘Now.’

Dale projected a mechanism born from the unwavering knowledge of another realm.

“──Light, refract.”

An incantation from another realm to solidify that vision. By accelerating the molecular motion surrounding him and heating the air layer, he constructed a ‘shield of light’ that induced the refraction of the high-powered laser.

The light of annihilation plunged directly toward that very shield of light.

“……!”

Sword and shield.

The annihilating light, fired as a concentrated barrage, bounced off cleanly. Bouncing, it instead headed toward the Virgin’s wings──.

It was at that very moment.

Clang!

Something shattered.

The accelerating circle centered on the heart came to a halt. The agonizing scream from the heart, as if it would burst at any moment, ceased.

Shub’s form vanished, and the winter night scene surrounding the two of them disappeared as well.

Before they knew it, Dale found himself atop the drawbridge of Reims.

The circle around his heart, having reached overload, ceased its movement.

‘I never thought I’d lose here…’

Facing a life-or-death situation, his strength had finally run out. He hadn’t even reached the fourth circle’s realm, the wall right before him. What a laughably pathetic ending. With a bitter smile, Dale raised his head.

An angel with six wings was there.

“……!”

Wings torn to shreds, riddled with holes. Golden armor shattered beyond repair, its inner workings exposed. A sight of utter devastation, covered in wounds beyond description.

That very saintly maiden was kneeling before Dale.

──Dale’s counterattack had succeeded.

‘……!’

Yet the wounded maiden staggered to her feet. As if squeezing out her very last ounce of strength.

She did not fall.

In front of everyone watching, Aurelia stepped toward Dale, who had exhausted all the circle’s power and lacked even the strength to resist. The blade of the nameless soldier was aimed at him.

“It seems further fighting would be meaningless.”

The Holy Maiden declared. At that absurd conclusion, Dale gave a bitter smile.

“I concede defeat.”

“No, it is not.”

The Holy Maiden, sword still drawn, shook her head calmly. After shaking it, she knelt directly before Dale.

Plunging her sword vertically into the floor.

“This match is a draw.”

The maiden declared. A draw.

“That can’t be…”

Dale had already exhausted his strength to the point where he couldn’t lift a finger. In contrast, though she had allowed a fatal counterattack, the Virgin’s ‘avatar’ had not yet vanished. She was still in a position to continue the fight.

The Holy Maiden Aurelia surely knew this fact as well.

“I express my reverence for the Master’s martial prowess.”

Nevertheless, the Holy Maiden knelt before Dale, paying the knight’s respect.

“The tales of the connoisseurs were not false, after all.”

“The tales of the nobles were not false.”

At that very moment, the same words flowed from both their mouths.

Dale smiled quietly. The maiden smiled too.

“I am Dale of Saxony.”

Immediately after, Dale raised his voice and shouted.

“As promised, here in Reims, the capital of the Kingdom of Britannia.”

Dale’s voice, amplified by magic as he squeezed out his last ounce of magic power, boomed out.

A voice loud enough for all the city’s people and the independence army watching the duel to hear.

“I swear before the Sistine Sisters and the Holy Maiden Aurelia that I will dedicate this.”

Not Charles VII, the rightful heir to the Kingdom of Britannia, but always invoking the name of ‘Saintly Maiden Aurelia’.