22.Cut through the night

Editing/Standardisation: Medicine Melancholy
Original Translation: Medicine Melancholy

Reiji

“… Dammit… Hey, you still alive…?”

“Somehow, yeah… I could ask you the same question myself.”

“Unfortunately, looks like this is as far as we go…”

The shadows were already all around us, completely surrounding us as we stood back to back, barely holding up our swords.

The sun had long since set, making it difficult to see them in the darkness.

There was no power left to feed to my sword, and that meant I no longer had an effective means of attack.

Saul’s shield was shattered and useless as a result of having already protected him several times, and most of the armor he was wearing was also damaged and falling off. Both of us had wounds all over their bodies, and in this state it was difficult for us to escape.

“Oh, and by the way… If we make it back alive, Iris is going to take care of us while dressed as a nurse.”

“… Hey, you could have said that earlier.”

That guy probably wouldn’t take that kind of cosplay well. I’m sure he’d look completely embarrassed with a red face and teary eyes. For a moment, the image of Iris taking care of me in various ways flashed in my mind. Damn, why did he have to be so cute?

“Haha… are you, by any chance, a little more motivated now?”

“I’d be lying if I say no. I can’t die here… else my ghost’s gonna be full of regrets.”

However, even if we said jokes to drown out our fears, the situation would not improve. I wonder if that guy would be able to escape and survive. I bet he’d cry like crazy… ah, crap, all I could think of was his crying face now. I wished I could have seen him smiling more often… hahaha, what the hell was I thinking about? He’s my best friend, and I’m perfectly straight.

But, well…

I looked back to the moment I was first shown his avatar.

That fictional girl called “Iris”… I had fallen for her.

Shit, I must not die here…

“……?”

No matter how long I waited, the attack didn’t come. “It” was looking in the other direction, not this way… Oh hell no. Sweat trickled down my back. There was only one person I could think of that it was giving top priority to. A rustling sound of footsteps on the snow from the town.

Damn idiot! Get the hell out of here!!

The cries couldn’t escape my throat, and my motionless body could only look in the direction that thing was rushing to.

Stop it, don’t do this.

The frustration of having just let a small body be violated in front of me in the blink of an eye was still seared into my mind.

More than anything else in the world, I didn’t want to continue watching him… Iris being tortured, humiliated, and torn apart here!

My foot staggered after the enemy, but stopped dead in its tracks. Saul, who was standing next to me, seemed to be in the same boat, staring at the end of the road in amazement.

The worst case scenario in my mind did not happen. Neither the shadowy tentacles, nor the little things around them, were able to harm Iris. The approaching shadows quickly crumbled away, and the others hesitated to approach… perhaps out of fear? I looked at the situation from a distance.

Iris put his hands together as he walked slowly and leisurely. When he slowly let go of his hands, I saw that he was holding a majestic staff that looked as if it had gathered only white, clean light and formed it into a shape, wherever it had come from. What’s happening here? His presence was so different from what it used to be. And yet, the smile on that face was definitely his…

Iris thrust his staff into the ground. Instantly, everything around him was enveloped in a dazzling, soft, mysterious light.

Wow… it’s… so beautiful…

???

“Most of the townspeople have been evacuated, young master… I mean, Mayor.”

“Good. I’m sorry you guys had to draw the short straw.”

There were no soldiers in this frontier town. The ones who remained here were the vigilantes formed by the town’s youth volunteers, who all hated to be a stumbling block to those who were evacuating and had decided to volunteer to buy the townspeople time to escape or to be a stumbling block to divert that monster from its path. Those who had been involved in the battle so far had been wounded and unable to move properly due to the mysterious symptoms caused by the monster’s attack.

“What are you talking about? If you say so, why didn’t you just run away? You’re still young, you’ve only just taken over from your parents, and your wife is probably waiting for you.”

“Haha… while I’m really sorry to my wife… I’m this town’s mayor, however inexperienced I am… and it’s not cool at all to just leave it all to the young travelers and say goodbye.”

I thought of them out of the corner of my eye, still probably fighting. They had taken care of a number of pending cases around town, and they were very good at what they do. The damage would have been much more severe had they not interrupted that monster from attacking the townspeople. But this town shouldn’t have any connection to their journey. They could have run away if they sensed danger, and I wouldn’t blame them for that. What’s more worrisome was that the girl with them, whom my wife said she’d gone missing, was still nowhere to be found…

“… You still haven’t found her? I hope she’s still safe.”

“Good grief… Huh?!”

Suddenly, something exploded with such force that the town became bright as if dawn had arrived.

“What’s that light?!”

“I-I don’t know, must be some kind of magic… wait, what?”

“Did something happen?!”

“The injuries… they’re all gone…”

“Is this for real…?”

If I looked, those around me who had sunk into a look of resignation were looking at their bodies quizzically. Was this light… some kind of healing arts? But I had never heard of anything on such a large scale that could take effect from so far away.

Suddenly, they fell to their knees and began to hang their heads toward the light. Some of them even shed tears and prayed.

It was as if the light was something only heard in legend…

Iris

“As long as I don’t give up, surely…!”

My back was so hot it felt like it is going to burst. The light wings increased their output, and the color went from gold to white, becoming even more dazzling.

“Surely… I’ll cut down any darkness…!”

It’s still not enough. I had to give it my all. My whole body creaked, and I felt a strange presence on my back. A new light was born behind me as if hatching.

Yes… these were my wings to protect what I wanted to protect.

“That which heals all wounds, all curses, all malice… Manifest yourself… ‘Sanctuary’…!!”

Like the dawn of day, the darkness of night was cut open and a dazzling white light filled the world. Between the six large symmetrical light wings, four new, smaller ones spread out, and my body softly left the ground and stayed a few feet above. The shadows surrounding us retreated as if frightened, and the black haze that should have continued to cling and torment those two easily fizzled out and disappeared without a trace.

“What the… did that light just heal us?”

“Not just the wounds… but my strength and magic power too…”

Stunned, they stood up, freed from all injuries and restrictions. As they were restored to their perfect condition, I caressed my chest.

Unlike the previous “Sanctuary”, this one was much larger, about 200 meters in diameter. As long as one stood within its range…

“I will not allow any kind of curses to exist before me. Now…”

They smiled softly as they looked up at me in amazement.

“Good luck, both of you! It will only last for about a minute… so do your best!”

“That’s already enough!”

“Just leave it to us!”

Those two stood up quickly and readied their weapons. Back to back, each of them thrust their weapons at “it” and shouted.

““’Release’!””

Immediately, a complex pattern of light like lines formed from Reiji’s arms and legs, and his limbs were clothed in light like fairy wings. A nearly one-meter circle floated above Saul’s head and began to spin with a dazzling light. Einphelia, a higher race of Human, and Celestia, a higher race of Highborn. Only reincarnated higher races were allowed to release their racial traits. It could only be used once every few days, but it was a trump card that greatly increased all abilities.

With a wave of the white light staff in my hand, their weapons glowed with the same color light as my wings. Feathers started dancing around those two to protect them.

“’Luminate Edge’ and ‘Multi-Protection’. This time… I shall be the one protecting you both…!”

Both were the same type of magic that I had used in the earlier battle, but with my new form, it had dramatically improved in potency.

“I need some time to prepare, I let you have the first strike, Saul!”

Reiji’s life force flowed into his sword again, the mechanism sealed in the blade was released, and countless slits began to open.

“Roger that!”

Saul’s sword tip began to swirl with energy as he drew his arm to the limit and prepared for a thrust.

A rain of shadowy tentacles filled the sky as they tried to attack us all at once. However, all of them were repelled by the dazzling feathers around us, without being able to touch us, they ended up uselessly gouging out the ground around them and unnecessarily rolling up the snow that had accumulated. Each of these feathers was a layer of “Protection”, and they would not go away that easily. Not with that countless number of feathers.

With that, the numerous mouths around all turned to look at us. If it had been the me of before, I was sure I would have lost my will to fight… But now I well understood my surroundings. There was one presence backing me up. She was waiting for the opponents to line up together… which was this very moment.

Behind me, as if crawling out of the darkness, a figure suddenly appeared.

“Nyahahaha! I’ve been waiting for this!”

Milly-san, who had been lurking with camouflage magic and listening intently for an opportunity, flapped her bat-like wings, a characteristic of Nosferatu, a higher form of her Demon race, and laughed loudly with a complicated and huge magic circle in the background, which must have already finished its chanting.

“Here comes the fireworks! ‘Lightning Detonator’!”

A huge roar was heard.

A gush of electric shocks turned the white world into purple electricity, evading me and turning all the “mouths” that were surrounding me into charcoal, as well as rushing past those two, swallowing all the shadows in a straight line and leading a straight path to “it”.

“…You! Why are you here?!”

“Nyaha, had I revealed myself too early, I would have only gotten in you guys’ way, so I’ve been standing by all this time in order to steal all the thunder in one fell swoop, nya!”

Milly-san jokingly answered an astonished Saul with the smuggest expression she could muster. But… when I looked closer at her, I saw that her hand holding the staff was covered in blood. I wondered how painful it must have been for her to wait for the right moment and watch those two being hurt in front of her. Nevertheless, she still concealed herself and waiting for that moment.

“Don’t give me that smug look, it’s annoying! Nice save, though!”

“You owe me one, nya. I’ll get it back someday, specifically with the most expensive sweets in town!”

“Why at such a time… Well, fine. Now that I’ve got a good look at that thing… It’s time I deal with that pesky sword of its!!”

Saul’s sword carved an intricate pattern forward. It quickly formed a huge formation of light that exceeded his own height.

“Pave the way forward! ‘Chain Bind Rampage’!!”

Saul’s feet exploded with a roar. Numerous glowing chains appeared from behind him, who was furiously charging, sword in hand, clad in a torrent of fighting spirit. The torrent of spirals from the tip of the sword obliterated the shadows that rushed in to fill up the space that had just been cut away.

When Saul’s sword connected with the sword that acted as “its” arm…

The white light in the sword exploded, and without even the slightest resistance, the distorted sword instantly dissolved into the air, leaving behind a high-pitched crystalline shattering sound, and vanished without a single shard. The chains that had been following Saul wrapped around and restrained the defenseless “it”. The paths toward “it” that were aligned by the chains no longer had any obstacles.

“It’s wide open! Reiji-san, finish it!”

“Alright then, nya, I’ll leave the rest to you, Senpai!”

“Leave it to me. Let’s go, ‘Dragon Eye Release’!!”

The slit in the center of Reiji’s sword hilt opened to expose the eye-like crystal inside, and the force field redeployed to reveal Rage’s “Arsley” in its true form. At the same time, the red cord once again extended to Reiji’s arm, taking away his strength. But the next moment, the light revived his lost strength in a flash. No matter how much was consumed, it would replenish as much as possible… because I’m here!

“… You can do it, Reiji!”

As I forcefully thrust out my clenched fist, all the white light I could muster converged on Reiji’s sword. The force field deployed by “Arsley” turned from red to white. The sword, which had reached a critical point, made a ringing sound like a bell, as if it was shouting for me to quickly release the destructive power in its body.

“Blow it away, one more time!”

With godlike speed, Reiji swung his sword into “it”, cut deep and deep into the crystal at its center… The white light within the sword burst forth, burning the enemy from the inside out like the sun.

The world became so white that nothing could be seen.

When all the light subsided and its residue began to fall like fluffy snow, the darkness of the night began to cover the surroundings as if it finally remembered that it existed.

“It” completely vanished, not even a speck of dust remained.

(Author’s Note)

Supplementing info. Reiji fell in love at first sight with the fictional girl “Iris” before his reason took over and he realized that was the protagonist inside. This is not BL.