Uncontrolled energy erupted from his body, flowing wildly with no direction. The ground beneath him fractured from the violent discharge, gouging out a wide, open crater.
The dust settled. His body felt too heavy to move. Purple veins appeared where he had been stabbed by the mace.
HYAAA!
Saturu's scream echoed across the ground.
Suddenly, an extraordinary sword blast struck his chest with a blur too fast to interpret, sending him crashing through the wall of a building.
CRASH!
Blood from his injured left eye and forehead trailed down his body.
But in that instant, a sharp, searing pain struck his heart. It was a poison, fast and vicious, which caused him to spit out a mouthful of blood.
Why couldn't I use my mana defense enhancement?
With his remaining half-opened right eye, he looked at the approaching Nozashi.
Kaito seized the moment of vulnerability. He threw two spears of condensed energy.
VWOOOSH!
One blasted Saturu's arm off. The other pierced through his leg. Blood sprayed into the air.
"GAH!!" Saturu's cry was cut short by the agony.
Nozashi had followed the trail and now stood tall in front of Saturu.
"Now to finish you off…" Nozashi's voice was a strained, pained rumble.
He looked down at Saturu in his weakened state. A fierce yellow aura erupted from him. The ground beneath them cracked.
"Foolish bastard," Saturu spat, breaking his body free from the hold of the condensed energy spears.
He drew his damaged sword from the ground with his right hand. The blade emitted a dark blue energy.
"He still has this much power left?"
Nozashi was pulled aback by the extraordinary energy Saturu was releasing in his state.
Saturu swung his sword, carrying the full power of a knight—no longer a Vermillion, but something else entirely—releasing a catastrophic, wide-range vertical slash.
It wasn't a technique. It was a seizure of energy. A wild, expanding dome of blue chaos vaporized the sand around him and cracked the stone foundations of the arena.
Nozashi's eyes narrowed. He remembered a shadowy figure's instruction.
"Use the technique 'Seven Stars of Soul Piercing' only when his energy erupts."
He planted his feet. I hope this works.
His aura—dark yellow mixed with purple
glowed brighter than Saturu's slash. He activated the technique. Dark purple energy swirled to his hand, the mixed aura condensing into his sword.
He blurred through Saturu's wide-range vertical slash.
Nozashi's sword glowed dark yellow as he struck a piercing blow through Saturu's chest. A blast of dark energy erupted, swallowing Saturu's blue light.
The blade penetrated his chest and exited out of his back.
Clan members screamed and fled. Some were too slow and were incinerated by the erupting energy.
Uwaaahk..!?
From the collision of the two forces, Saturu's sword shattered.
SHIIING—KRRAANNGG!
The sound was final. His sword, unable to withstand the chaotic surge of his own runaway power, exploded in his hand.
The shock of it—the sound, the feel of his last tangible connection to the clan breaking was the final trigger.
A flood of hot blood. Agony, white and absolute, worse than any blade. Saturu's world became pain and red darkness.
As the pain and the crushing power pressed against him, his mind broke.
Why must a hero suffer like this? I never did anything to hurt anyone… but they accused me of murder. They sentenced me to death. I was supposed to be the hero of the Vermillion.
Uwaaahk..!!
An unimaginable amount of pain rushed through him like a lightning strike. The agony stripped away his sanity. It was a white-hot knife twisting in his core.
Nozashi looked at the lifeless Saturu, removed his sword, and let the body fall to the ground.
Saturu opened his mouth to scream, but the sound was trapped behind a wall of pure, blinding pain. It consumed thought, breath, and being itself.
And then… the noise was gone.
It drained out of him with the last note. It poured into the rushing water at his feet and swirled away. The scream, the rage, the tiredness… it was all just… empty.
He looked at his hands. They were just hands. The face in the water was just a shell. The person who wore it, the one who felt so much, was gone. He was swept away.
He was the one who tried to be the hero. He put on the smile, handed it out like a gift. He waited for one in return. Just one. But they never did. They just took it and threw it away. They threw him away.
If the world did not need him to be the hero, then who would be the pillar?
They left him heavier, until he couldn't carry it anymore. A single tear pooled in his remaining eye.
But that weight was gone now. The crushing feeling was a hollow space. And in that hollow, there was only one thing. A single, cold, clear thought.
In the end, all he could do was laugh at his own death. Because this was his end.
"Heh… Heh… Hahaha, ahhahhaha!!"
Then, darkness swallowed everything.
In the end, there was no scream. Only a quiet rush of blood. The light in his remaining eye faded to the grey of stone.
Saturu, the Knight of Vermillion, was a map of wounds, cuts left to bleed.
The realm itself seemed to witness his death. The sky became dark. Rain started to pour, harsh and cold.
Nozashi stood over Saturu. "We will put your power to good use." He sheathed his sword and marched away.
"The sacrifice has been done," Lord Kaito said. A cold smile touched his lips.
"Should I cut off the head now?" Nozashi asked.
"No need. If he's long dead, just throw away the body like I did before," Lord Kaito replied.
His servants gathered Saturu's broken form and carried him away. His sword lay in pieces on the scarred earth. His body was thrown into the nearby high-flowing river.
SPLASH!
His body sank. Then it was swallowed by darkness.
Amidst the darkness, a single starlight glowed. A voice echoed inside him. It was ancient, resonant, absolute.
A vessel broken down… No worries. I have a replacement for this broken vessel....This one will do just fine.
A purple flame shot from the darkness, heading for a fading point of light—Saturu's dwindling consciousness. The light from the darkness swelled and swallowed the purple flame whole.
---
Haa!
Saturu's eye snapped open.
He sat up instantly on a mattress, his heart hammering against his ribs. He looked around, eyes wide with confusion. A sharp headache pulsed behind his temples.
Where am I? What happened?
The door slammed open.
A figure with white hair and pointed elven ears entered. He approached the mattress.
"You've finally awoken," the figure said, his voice calm.
Saturu tilted his head. "And you are?"
He had never seen this face before.
The elf only looked at him. "You shouldn't move too much. You're not fully healed."
Saturu looked down at himself. His arm and torso were completely wrapped in clean, white bandages.
The elf walked out and closed the door. "Just focus on your recovery. You'll need your strength."
The room felt small and quiet. Too quiet.