Chapter 21: Keyner Blake III

-That which began the world, that which began human history...

-??

It was time to end it.

My eyes were throbbing... My hands and legs were shaking... I could feel the air in my vicinity vibrating.

But beyond that, my vision...

And most importantly...

I didn't know what I was doing.

Ironically, my mind had just snapped.

Why was I fighting the strongest monsters of humanity?

What was I trying to prove? What did I want out of it? Why was I risking myself to such an extent?

In the circumstance I was in, I had a small range of options.

Run away from everyone there.

Help the three Wizards who took me in and attack Techmetriun as planned, ignoring the fact that we were being watched.

Of course, this last detail did not happen in reality. But why?

And why did I choose to embark on a suicide mission?

"Let me do something right this time."

They were the words of regret from the person who was most present on the intimate side of my life, regretful for having remained silent while my life was controlled like a puppet in a theater.

"It doesn't matter if you go to the end of the world. Understand that you are not alone. Understand that you have a place with us."

And these were the apologies of a person who felt responsible for my after-effects, given his inactivity while I was being molded as a future threat to humans.

However, I didn't care about that. I... I had already become involved in an irreversible way.

But... why?

It was even too convenient.

-Be careful! He's conjugating a High Arc! Defensive formation!

The second captain shouted to all the others, who, hearing his voice, went into an instance of guarding.

One, two, three...

I counted a total of six enemies.

Which meant...

The air around me was energized, which was evidenced by the small particles of plasma that formed. But that was not the only sign of danger.

Although inside a barrier, the air circulated freely.

But it was not just a calm breeze of air.

A storm was brewing. The sky was no longer blue. Thunder and black clouds took over the entire aerial landscape.

However, the sky was not the only one changing.

My posture was also different.

Instead of being holding one of the gunblades sideways, I was holding it with its blade facing the sky, with my left hand free, open and extended in front of me.

I feel like I stretched this fight out too far, considering the trap I think I just fell into.

But... It's not possible that they are involved in this. Because in theory, the AWA captains are the ones who should most oppose the actions of any Wizard.

So all I need to do is...

Energy that brought the fire... Energy that brought the light... Energy that brought the breakthrough....

What was coming out of my vocal folds I didn't recognize as my voice. I don't think anyone there would recognize it.

I suppose no one there would identify the sonority I was letting out as anyone's voice.

My words, at that moment, had power.

My own sweat was vibrating with the amount of mana my body was accumulating.

What was happening to me was indescribable. There were no human adjectives to try to explain what was happening to my mind and body in that instant.

But this is something obvious. After all ...

... humans don't use magic.

A bolt of lightning.

At his will, a giant electric spark, the color of his emotions would travel through space, tearing reality apart.

However, it is not just any trace of reality that will have its end.

The reality of the person in front of you.

Destroy it.

Shred it.

Destroy it, obliterate it.

Anyway, so much power in your hands... There is no better way to harness it.

...

What the hell was that?

It was as if my nerve synapses acquired a will of their own.

I didn't feel myself. I didn't recognize myself as an existence.

As if I was being-

-What happened, brat? Wasn't what was about to come out a High Arc?

Shouting in a defiant tone of voice, the second captain of the AWA was questioning me.

Such existential inertia made me forget that the rest of the AWA captains were around me. And that I would have to fight each one of them, until I fell in combat.

Only... Reasons to go on with this were lost.

Either I would continue with it...

...or the safety of those three could not be guaranteed.

A bad feeling ran through every cell in my body with a speed faster than an electric current could pass.

And in these last days, I knew very well about electricity.

-...

-??

I hadn't taken off the jacket Marino had given me. And from one of the pockets, I take out a small cylindrical glass capsule.

And in it, there was a pill. My last one.

Without water or any liquid, I swallow it.

-??

-...

Blue watched this scene with the utmost caution. The other captains, with one exception, did the same.

The exception was Naila, who looked at me with a face of conformity.

-What is this?

Blue asked me while his Azure Treasure materialized a traditional sword.

-This... It is something that will prevent me from doing anything beyond what is necessary now.

*Tec*

A casual snapping of fingers noise caught the attention of all the captains.

But it was obvious that this was going to happen.

The barrier that I had conjured broke down in a matter of moments after this action of mine.

-Did you lose the will to fight?

Blue asked me without lowering his guard. Now, he was looking for any irregularity in what was once the border of my barrier.

-I don't know.

-??

-As I said, I was not acting like myself.

I was fighting as their sworn enemy.

-Actually, I didn't have to fight with you. I didn't have to hold you here. Even though the Second Captain's words annoyed me for a few moments.

As convenient as it was for Morello and Yurion. But they weren't going to invade Techmetriun now.

-It was as if... Something outside me controlled me like a puppet, making me stand in your way.

And I already had an idea of what was controlling me.

The lines that bound me, controlled me, and made me blind... were put in place a month ago.

Now that I've figured it out, I have no time to spare.

-And that...

With a serious call, I made the attention of everyone there return to my person.

The seven captains of the Anti Wizard Army.

Among them, the person I considered my best friend.

Now, what I decided to do was to accept that humanity rejected me, and do as I pleased, accepting the fact that I was a Wizard.

I don't know if that made me lose my mind, but if it had, I would get it back now.

-...it's me acting as I should be acting. Sorry for trying to appear to be another kind of person, but now I ask you not to hold back!

I was holding one of my signature weapons in my right hand.

A white gunblade. Whiter than snow.

Its blade had a rectangular shape, which resembled a stiletto. The bar that separated the handle from the blade was shaped like the right side of the Yin-Yang symbol.

-Don't regret it later!

Blue answered my affront, with his Azure Treasure more agitated than ever.

The wind began to blow calmly again. Or was it that by recovering my consciousness, I was able to perceive the reality outside of me?

Blue looked intently at a point in the air. Slowly, he lowered his head, following it.

It was a piece of tree branch that was slowly falling to the ground, thanks to the presence of some leaves that gave it resistance.

-Photon razor!

-But wha...

The idiot who thought that the last act would only begin when that branch fell, created a wall-shaped barrier to block my attack.

But that attack was different from the previous one.

There was no lightning. There was no electricity in my attack.

What was projected from my gunblade was a blade of pure light energy.

Pure, shimmering, limpid energy.

But that could bathe the ground with the blood of someone who was careless.

The fourth captain noticed this the instant his shoulder reddened with a scrape from my attack.

With no time to ignore the pain, Blue used his sword to block a strike against my gunblade.

He began to apply his blows, but I loved a defensive instance, even though the shape of my blade was not that effective for this. As he attacked, I placed my sword vertically to bar side attacks, and horizontally when his blows came from a higher point.

*BANG*

Blue's last blow was accompanied by an attempt to put pressure under my sword. With that, I fired a shot into his abdomen, taking advantage of the fact that my trigger is in the same hand as the sword.

He recoiled backwards with my shot. Even with him creating a mini barrier with his Azure Treasure to block the shot, he had still been hit.

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

He reminded me that I was not the only one with ranged attacks.

Four shots were fired by Blue's created soldiers. Each one coming through the four coordinates.

I slide my left foot on the ground, while turning clockwise. As the ground was marked with a luminous stripe.

In the end, Blue's attack was blocked by a circular wall, formed by a white metal.

The ability to solidify light itself in the form of a metal Solid Endropy. That was the result of the pact between me and that giant.

The instant that bar of gold was handed to me covered me with the surprise of his actions. A pact was being offered.

The feeling that he was trying to become part of my strength, just as I was becoming part of it. If it were not for this, I would already be dead.

In that instant, I just remembered a fateful day.

The day I understood how weak I was before everyone else in this kind of war.

Like a muscle memory, I exchanged sword thrusts with Blue, even though I was not conscious of what I was doing.

Blue was holding a triangular sword in his left hand, and a shotgun in his right. As his blade was blocked by mine, a shot capable of pulverizing the densest rock came towards my face.

I deflected with a lowering of my head, and used my weapon again. This time, a rising one.

But my blow was useless. For a new weapon was at Blue's disposal in a few moments.

Keeping the same indigo blue color, a small shield, extending over almost all of Blue's forearm, dispersed my attack like a clump of dust in the wind.

Repeatedly, I would fire back at the captain in front of me.

But it seemed that he really took my request not to hold back seriously.

Pixels of his Azure Treasure were gathering, forming small defensive points, ignoring all my attacks.

And I had to stop attacking frantically, because a sort of missile came from behind me. Noticing disturbances approaching thanks to the mana that was imbued in my shadow, I dragged my right foot on the ground in a circular motion around myself, raising a metal barrier.

Turning my attention back to my front, that bastard kept surprising me with the amount of tricks.

In this case, with the amount of weapons.

Dozens of octahedral-shaped drones were covering my opponent's entire field of vision.

I stretched out my left hand in the direction of the drones. It was starting to feel heavy, hot, and I realized in that instant that somehow I had been hit by the first missile.

I channeled a massive amount of mana into my hand. If I lost control at that instant, I would have to continue the fight using only the other hand.

With a considerable amount of mana, I slid it under the blade of my gunblade, imbuing it with a greater amount of mana than usual.

The drones were about thirty centimeters tall. Since they were a direct creation of ArcanaTech from one of the captains, I had no way of knowing for sure if my attack power would be enough to contain the first wave.

The drones were fast, but I could not advance on them, as I was working at that moment with high mana densities under my gunblade.

The first of several drones came within range of me, and I tried an upward slash to break it.

The instant my blade made contact with the drone was something new. It was similar to the feeling of feeling the mana pulses of those three while training. The conditions they were in were processed by my gunblade, and I quickly understood them, devising ways to continue the combat. Obviously this should happen to them as well, but this is the observation of a novice in magic.

My senses were racing, I couldn't assume if in that instant I was breathing or not. I couldn't assume if my five senses were all in good condition.

As if it were a miracle, my sword managed to break the drone.

I couldn't think of anything else.

I shouldn't think about anything else.

All I had to do at that moment was...

-??

... protect myself!

Again, I lost my visual ability to distinguish colors.

For me, the world was now a black and white painting.

I didn't want to know what this meant, for I knew the source.

For, even if it didn't seem like it, I was not in that fight alone.

I continued to destroy the drones with my gunblade. One after another. Ensuring that it would only take one hit for each.

My speed was no longer being hindered by the mana density that my gunblade had.

As one drone arrived, I would break it.

If two arrived, I would cut one down, and shoot the other.

A few seconds passed, and the amount of attacks became three simultaneously.

Without leaving the scene. Without leaving that reality that I had put myself in.

I would destroy one drone with a cut, the second one would be shot down.

The third, on the other hand...

Two swords pierced it, disrupting the pixels and tearing it apart.

In that instant, I stopped just moving my arms, looking for targets to destroy. My eyes had not yet regained the ability to see colors, but what needed to be seen was already in front of me.

Blue was coming towards me with a traditional sword and a shotgun.

We exchanged blows again, but with him initiating the attacks.

Again, in a loop where neither of us could finish each other off with only our fencing skills.

At least that's what Blue thought.

I blocked one of his attacks, and followed up with my standard technique of taking a shot to try to retreat.

*BANG*

The shot was made, but thanks to the result, I could move on to the outcome.

Blue was unable to dodge my blow, receiving a close range shot to the forearm.

-But how? I wasn't supposed to be able to dodge that.

-Please pay attention, Fourth Captain!

Blue looked at where I was pointing with my gaze.

His own body.

In fact, under normal conditions, Blue shouldn't receive my attack at all.

But it seems that even as a battery, he wasn't going to let me die here.

There was a small amount of electricity in his body, which weakened some of his movements.

Quill Fox had lied that his bond with me had been broken in the fight against Marino.

Which makes me believe that continuing to use his mana was something dangerous. Not for my sake...

...but for the kind of person that Wizard was.

-I'm sorry, but that won't be enough!

Manifesting his ArcanaTech capable of taking the form of any weapon, a rather peculiar pistol appeared in his hands.

-Good, but I won't let it!

-ARGH!

-BLUE!

As the Third Captain screamed, the Third's wrist was impaled vertically by two swords formed of light.

-That's-

-Marino?

-A good guess, but no.

In a way, a surprise attack using swords that appear out of nowhere would be a signature work of Marino Sasaki.

But that doesn't stop his apprentice from copying it, using the ability to solidify light itself into metal in the shape of a sword.

-Do you surrender?

-Of course not! Now you will-

*BANG*

-The fuck?

-So he wasn't...

-...

I knew that one more slip up, the one who would need a memorial would be me.

That pistol... Cless had commented that there was a pistol belonging to a captain that was capable of causing molecular disorder without living beings. And that this was one of the tools that allowed humans to survive against monster attacks.

But this fight was over.

In that instant I was regaining my strength.

I was recovering by uniting with my Alter...

The Alter that was inside Blue's own shadow. The same being that a few moments ago, shot him in the back, with the shot piercing his skin until it was lost in a journey through his body.