DBA FG

by HyperBrachydios

A quarter of a century has passed since the conclusion of DBA G. The new generation of monster taming hunters set out into unknown lands, only to find a world beyond their control and blood that stains the ground deeper than they could possibly understand. This is nothing more than a story about finding something. Beyond the end, the expedition of the powerless begins.

34. Blossom Spiral

The first memory cached in my brain is one of being called by a prodigy. I'm sure I could go further back if I tried, but it's the first one that I can recall without needing to put that effort in.

A prodigy is a term for those who show remarkable talent from a young age. Therefore, it's a title you can only hold for a limited part of your life.

Former prodigy is only a term for those who burnt out, though. If you keep going at the same pace, then they start calling you a genius instead. For me, the shift came around when I was around twelve or so.

From what I've researched people generally consider being called a prodigy by one's own parents to be worthless, so the first time I was referred to as one in any meaningful form was around when I was five or so. So in total, I was probably called a prodigy for about seven years.

It wasn't as though I ever did that much, though. A child is limited in what they can do. I just did what I was told to do, and people told me that I was a prodigy.
I noticed that the others around me didn't have the same thing happen to them.

It's because they weren't doing it right. They made mistakes. I didn't understand the point of those mistakes, so I didn't make any.
When they told me they were jealous, I just told them that they shouldn't make any mistakes. But that ended up making them angry.

I didn't know why. So I looked into it, and found out that people become angry when something important to them is insulted. I realised my rudeness. If the mistakes mattered to them that much, then I shouldn't have told them that.
I still wonder how they found out that they should be angry about that before I did.

"Minerva, you're so good at fighting. You should become a hunter."

Is what people told me. And so I did. Being a hunter was nice, I think.

"Minerva, have you ever considered becoming a guild knight? We could use strength like yours."

Is what someone asked me, a few years later. And so I did. It wasn't all that different, so I didn't mind.

I continued on like that for a while. At one point, I was told to work with another group of hunters to exterminate some poachers that were doing something or other.

It was pretty tough work, there were so many of them that it was really tedious to clear them all out. I guess that's why they sent so many of us.

I remember that I was fighting the last one with one of those other knights. After we dealt with everything, he said something like-

"Wow, Minerva. Your strength really is impressive. I'm over here all exhausted from fighting their boss, but you look like you've barely broken a sweat. I'd love to fight with you myself, one on one, sometime."

And so I did.

---

"At the age of 24, Minerva Manul suddenly turned on her fellow guild knight, Swordbert Armament. He was the leader of the group of guild knights known as SWORDS. Minerva wasn't a part of that group, but was collaborating with them to take down a medium sized monster part trafficking operation. The reasons that she turned on him are unknown.

According to the one surviving member of SWORDS, she just attacked without warning, in the middle of a conversation. That same group member also mentioned that Swordbert was dispatched with a single attack. In retaliation, the other members of SWORDS attempted to apprehend her, but were struck down with similar ease. The surviving member was struck through the spine. Miraculously, he managed to survive with only his lower body paralysed.

Shortly afterwards, other guild knights in the area found her and tried to apprehend her. When it came down to a fight, they were swiftly eliminated as well.

The situation escalated further, with a combined force of over a hundred hunters and guild knights to take her down. Every single one failed.

Sixty percent were killed by her. Out of the forty left, half were injured but survived. The remaining half retreated without even attempting anything.

The survivors all died shortly afterwards through various circumstances. Every single one, not even one was missed. Some took their own lives, some died in accidents, the rest vanished without a trace.

From a logical point of view, there should have been no reason for them to retreat.

There was no way that a lone human, guild knight or otherwise, armed with only a spear, could win against more than a hundred other humans with the same level of weaponry.

But Minerva's genius is not constrained by logic. That's how she won. By hacking through so many of them, without any hesitation. So ruthlessly, so sublimely, that the onlookers lost any will to fight.

In the same way, there was no logical explanation for their deaths. Perhaps it could've been called an extremely unlikely coincidence, but people would never accept such a thing. Once more, the only explanation was that Minerva was not constrained by logic.

Her genius was a curse. Not on herself. I doubt that she cared about it.

But it was a curse on everyone else that encountered her.

Blaming it on a curse is probably about as much of an unbelievable answer as saying they all died by coincidence. Maybe it's the exact same? But like with why they retreated, it's the only possible explanation.

Those hunters, those guild knights, all those who spent their lives fighting and in pursuit of greater strength found themselves face to face with something they could never amount to.

Even if all those pebbles were to stack together, they could never come close to the mountain before them.

She was simply too far ahead in every single way. Her genius allowed her to excel at everything, with no effort required. Having never known struggle, she had formed not a single attachment to this world.

If they were to liken increasing in skill to climbing upwards, then she would have been floating.

I'm sure that the knowledge that a person like that existed was enough to break them.

I'm sure that each one held onto the belief that they were special until that moment. Their own personal mix of narcissism and delusion, shaped through whatever insignificant lives they'd led until then, completely evaporated in the face of real power.

People often treat elder dragons like natural disasters. I can see why.
They are living exceptions to the rules of nature, with the power to reshape the world around them. The only time the guild ever has to deal with them is when they're posing a threat to the ecosystem, so of course we'd see them in that way.

But there's still a key distinction between an elder dragon and a natural disaster.
An elder dragon is a living being. It does not act without purpose. That purpose might not be easily understood, or it might bring into conflict with the rest of the world, but there is typically some kind of purpose behind their actions.

Minerva never gave a single reason for her actions. Not even one attempt at an explanation was offered. Those that did ask and lived to tell the tale reportedly said that she told them that she "didn't know".

In that sense, she's probably closer to a natural disaster than even an elder dragon.

An unparalleled genius, striking down those that oppose her and driving those who don't to madness.

Maybe she doesn't carry any kind of curse at all. Maybe her presence merely illuminates a curse that we all already carry. One that dooms us to spend our whole lives stuck writhing on the ground, only realising that a world above exists when we see someone that can glide through it. And then, realising that it's stuck to us, we're driven to madness. It could be something

That's the sort of person I'm up against here.
Now, I don't have any kind of pride in my fighting ability. I could never even dream of being the strongest of any kind. I have better odds of being called the weakest of all hunters.

So how was I ever going to stand a chance?

---

Sparks flew through the air. In the middle of the city, two hits were exchanged.

The blades of a wirebug puppet clashed against a spear.

The two attacks connected only briefly, flying away from each other in the next instant.

Zara tugged the strings. Without any hesitation, a second attack followed. The same spear deflected it again.

More attacks, more deflections. Even though Zara's response time should have been at least twice as fast, even though there should have been no way to predict the angle of attack, Minerva was effortlessly deflecting them all.

Zara quickly ran out of potential moves to make, leaving her completely open. Arachne grabbed her and pulled her and her out of the path of Minerva's spear thrust, causing her to only graze through the body of the puppet.

They'd repeated similar exchanges countless times since the start of the fight.

After Zara told Isa to go on ahead while they stayed behind to stall Minerva, Arachne grabbed her spear with webbing. Minerva began the fight disarmed.

Ordinarily, that should've settled the fight before it even properly began. But Minerva was nothing but ordinary.

Starting with such an overwhelming advantage meant nothing. It also didn't matter that Minerva had never been in a situation like that before.

She broke through the barrier before her with ease. Zara and Arachne were only in possession of her spear for a total of ten seconds, before Minerva rearmed herself. But she didn't take that opportunity to pursue Isa, instead remaining focused on fighting Zara and Arachne.

"I knew that I wouldn't be able to reach her from the start. I'm not enough of an idiot to think that if she can take on an army of a hundred by herself, then I still have a chance of winning. But I still wasn't ready for just how unfair it would be. I don't think that anyone could understand it without feeling it first-hand."

Zara and Arachne had spent the entire fight so far continuously retreating.
They led most of the interactions, constantly attacking in an attempt to catch Minerva off-guard, but every single one until that point had failed completely.

"I've just got to keep her away from anyone else for as long as I can. The others are better at fighting than us, but they'd probably die a lot quicker. I've got no delusions about my fighting ability, I know that they're far closer to her level than I am. But it's because I'm not delusional that I can recognise the only reason I'm still alive is because this puppet is between me and her."

She ran some simulations in her head.

"If I was trying to attack her with a regular melee weapon, then I'd probably die before I could land a single attack. If I was using a bowgun, she'd probably close the gap and kill me before I could fire a single shot. But because there's this puppet between us, she only seems to be targeting that. I don't have the time or working room to question why. I've just got to abuse it as much as I can."

The Kirin that Minerva was fighting with jumped into the fray once more. She had simply ordered it to attack, with no other thought put into her orders.

"We've just got to keep stalling her until I get an opening to land one hit. Only one dose of poison, and this'll get so much more manageable. Once Isa works out the secret of how they're controlling the monsters, then we'll have a chance of taking her off guard. I know she can do it. I'm not fighting to see if it happens, I'm fighting until that happens."

Zara went on the offensive once more.

Another attack plan.

The Kirin was only a minor annoyance to her. All it could do was charge straight forwards and try to electrocute when close enough.

If it had acted like a Kirin normally would, then that alone would have provided an obstacle that Zara and Arachne could not overcome. But because of Minerva's lack of understanding of how a Kirin fights, or rather her lack of interest in understanding, all it could do was attack in such a simple manner.

With better orders, it could've been a threat. But because she didn't pay it any mind, all it could do was charge forwards almost blindly.

But, that didn't mean that they could target it. Every time that the distance between the Kirin and its targets was small enough, it would strike itself with lightning.
Even if she could've attacked it, she still would have refrained. Zara's plan was predicated on finding a way to free the monster.

She knew that her and Arachne's chances of winning against Minerva were low. It was a fact that she'd repeatedly burnt into her mind.

Zara got the sense that if she were to calculate her exact odds of success the number would be so unfathomably low that reading it would cause the minds of several of her group mates to warp and expand beyond recognition, driving them into madness. That's why she didn't waste time on calculating it.

Really, she knew that it was a waste in general to calculate her odds of success in any kind of situation.

After all, in over the twenty years that she'd lived until that day, Zara Lowe had never won.

She had happened to be on the winning side multiple times, but a victory had never been attained through her own efforts.
She was not the type to delude herself by saying that she was carrying the team, or that her input affected the fight in any significant way. If her allies were strong enough to win without her, then while on their side she would win. If they weren't strong enough to win without her, then while on their side she would lose. It was that simple.
She knew full well that she was not necessary for victory. Her only worth was her medical knowledge, useful only when the fight had concluded.

Because of that, Zara and Arachne had never won. No matter how close they got, victory had always eluded them.

And before them was that woman who had never lost. No matter how close she got, defeat had always eluded her.
Considering all of this, she could only be called the War Goddess.

A human challenging the divine. Zara found the idea of her doing so laughable.
That sort of thing should be reserved for strong humans only, she thought. It wasn't her place.

But to focus on the point once more, she was fighting in the hope of the Kirin waking from the spell that had been placed upon it through methods unbeknownst to her.

She certainly had no chance of winning alone. She had a marginally better chance of winning together. But if there were a third party involved, another distraction, then those odds might change. How they would change, she didn't know.

Zara realised that she was gambling for a chance to gamble. She couldn't ignore that fact, but she forced herself to not care. Beggars could not be choosers, so to say.

"Choosing how you win is something only they can do."

That's what she'd told herself, over and over again.

In essence, Zara was grabbing onto every thread that she could, hoping to climb just a bit higher. To keep herself going for just a second longer.

She really couldn't care about her plan revolving around two random chances. Not because it didn't concern her, she could very well die if her plan failed, but the immediate threats to her life took priority over the threats that were yet to form.

Such as Minerva's spear thrusting technique, roughly equivalent to the threat of lightning. Or her spear being swung around, roughly equivalent to the threat of a falling star.

Zara had tried every single possible attack that was applicable in the situation, to little avail.

They had tried to catch Minerva in a pincer attack, only to fail.

Even with attacks approaching from both sides, she slipped between them. An utterly absurd display of movement that Zara could have only dreamed of was performed in front of her, with an attitude as though it was nothing out of the ordinary.

When threatened with being crushed by the cast difference in size between herself and Arachne, Minerva stepped to the side. She even dodged around Zara's follow-up attack, trying to seize the moment of vulnerability created as Minerva was forced to dodge.

Any attacks of excessive force were useless.

In the same way that throwing a strong punch required a wind-up, any attacks Arachne could've used that would have dealt a non-negligible amount of damage to Minerva took so long that they were effectively useless.

If she had time to prepare for the attack, then she could easily deal with it. If it could be stopped, then she would stop it. If not, then she would evade it.

It was that simple. Not that it mattered. She dodged the attacks that she didn't have any time to prepare for as well.

She must have been a genius of defence.

A drawn-out, head-on battle was not in Arachne's favour. As a Nerscylla, she was much more suited to hunting down her prey by restraining their options until they were cornered.

Restricting their movements with her webbing, weakening them with poison, putting them to sleep. That was what she sought.

She'd already used her webbing to disarm Minerva once. Because Minerva now knew to expect that, she wouldn't give them another chance to do so.

Every single attack that Zara and Arachne made against Minerva failed. Without even a consolation prize such as grazing her or putting a chip in her equipment.

That seemingly endless purgatory of slowly being worn down and pushed back continued on for Zara and Minerva until a significant change occurred without warning.

12:15

The moment that Judah took down the king.

The moment that all of the monsters were freed.

If it were to be given a name, it could only be the moment of unshackling.

For those there, it at first didn't seem like anything unusual was happening. Minerva was charging forwards. With her, was the Kirin.

Halfway through its gallop, it abruptly came to a halt.

Minerva came to a halt as well, trying to ascertain the reason why this was happening.

Zara, standing only a short distance away, gazed into the Kirin's eyes.

Confusion. She knew better than to assume that she could understand a monster's emotions, let alone an elder dragons. In fact, she looked down on anyone that partook in anthropomorphism of that type. But looking into the Kirin's eyes, its overwhelmingly sense of bewilderment was clearly conveyed.

Its eyes were now scanning every part of its surroundings, trying to grasp what was going on, rather than only taking in the information that was immediately relevant to its goals.

When she saw the two states back to back, Zara understood the difference. Before, the Kirin had been looking without really looking. All that it could see was what it had been ordered to go after, everything else was irrelevant unless an immediate obstacle. Now, it was looking as a living creature would, eyes catching on everything.

"It's woken up. What happened? Was there a timer on the control? That's unlikely, if there was one then wouldn't they all be fighting while keeping that in mind? So… Isa must have finally done something. I dunno why it freed the Kirin all the way over here, I'll find out later. Because right now, this is our chance to finally strike back!"

"Arachne! Atta-"

A blast of wind swept through the area, drowning out Zara's orders.

Millions of knives being thrown through the air directly towards her. That was what the gale felt like to Zara. Her armour was cut into, she could feel the feedback of her puppet being chipped.
Those millions of knives cleaved through their surroundings without mercy, instantly reducing the buildings into rubble small enough to be easily blown around. Minerva, as skilled as she was, had no chance of dodging something that was larger than the area she stood in and was blown away. Zara completely lost sight of her and the Kirin.

The Gypceros hide that covered Arachne failed to provide much resistance against the onslaught of slashing attacks. To prevent herself from being swept away like the rest, she dug her four legs into the ground to anchor herself. Zara did not have any such method available.

She was lifted away by the wind, along with her wirebug puppet.

Arachne hurriedly spun a web and shot it towards Zara.

She managed to catch her with it, but the web was quickly severed. A second web was shot almost immediately after, managing to properly stop Zara's ascent this time.

A few seconds later, the sudden attack finally subsided. Zara fell back to the ground. Arachne pulled her legs out of the craters she'd wedged them into.

"What was that? It was like-"

She didn't have the time to finish asking that question, the wind picking up again. It did not sweep outwards, destroying everything in its path life before. Instead, it began to swirl around.

It had already begun to swirl from the moment Zara began asking her question, in the few seconds that she took to speak it reached the point of being noticeable.

The freshly created debris was caught up in the wind, as were those standing around.

Sensing the oncoming danger, Arachne pulled Zara in close. A few seconds later, the wind grew strong enough to lift them off the ground.

In only a short amount of time it had grown into a tornado. Debris flew around them, caught up in the vortex. The strong winds and floating chunks of buildings prevented them from seeing more than a few meters ahead in any direction.

Arachne threw out a web, catching on the largest piece of debris that she could find. She pulled herself in closer, landing on the floating chunk of what used to be a building.

Chaos surrounded them. Zara, still fastened to Arachne's back, stared around in bewilderment. Just a few seconds prior they had been on the ground. Now they were floating through the air, in a situation she couldn't even remotely comprehend.

The confusion caused her mind to freeze up, preventing her from making any decisions. Not that she could have done much while tied to Arachne's back for safety anyway. All the thinking was left up to the Nerscylla.

Zara's head perked up. Something had caught her attention. Flashes of lightning hit the rocks off in the distance. The strikes played out in short succession, slowly moving closer.

As they drew nearer, Zara noticed a small blue object that was approaching them.

"The Kirin! Is it moving closer? Arachne, stay focused on that Kirin!"

The monster gracefully hopped between platforms of floating debris, striking each with lightning as it landed.

"It's moving closer. No doubt about it. But why? It should be free. Did she get it back under her control somehow? No, no way that she could do that in this situation, don't be ridiculous. So it must be acting out of its own free will. Then why is it coming closer? Is it running from something? Maybe it's running from Minerva. That feels unlikely as well. Any possibility other than it coming to attack us of its own free will seems hard to believe right now. But what reason does it have to do that?"

She tried to recall any useful information, finding none.

"I don't have any idea what Kirin are usually like. Maybe it's holding onto a grudge for the damage we did to it earlier? It seems hard to believe that there'd be any monster petty enough to come chasing after us in the middle of a tornado, but I don't know if it's impossible!"

There was barely any distance left between them.

"Understanding why doesn't matter anymore! It's already here, so-"

"Arachne, attack!"

The Kirin reached the last step on its journey, leaping forwards to impale Arachne. In response, she sprung off the debris at the last second, both escaping the Kirin's reach and displacing its intended landing point.

Arachne landed on a nearby platform. The Kirin was stranded in mid-air, unable to change its trajectory. Arachne shot her webs past it, grabbing onto a smaller piece of debris and reeling it in to slam it into the Kirin.

The Kirin could not even make an attempt at dodging, all it could do was brace itself for impact.

The chunk of debris knocked it backwards, but the Kirin swiftly recovered by the time it landed on another chunk. It looked upwards to check Arachne's position relative to itself and set off on a new path without hesitation.

Arachne tried the same method again, but the Kirin jumped off the incoming projectile this time.

Zara tried to struggle free of the web that she had been wrapped in for her own safety, to no success.

"I'll help too, so you free my arms. You move, I attack, that sort of thing."

Arachne moved one of her limbs above her head, starting to slice through the webbing as Zara's request. While waiting to be released, Zara glanced upwards.

"You've gotta be joking."

Minerva descended from above, plunging her spear into Arachne's hide. Zara glanced upwards, trying to work out just where she had dropped from, seeing nothing over them except for a few distant specks that she assumed to be rocks. Minerva retracted her spear just as quickly, looking Zara in the eyes.

Zara struggled, still unable to move, powerless to do anything. The debris that they were standing on shifted in response to the abrupt change in weight, while the pain caused Arachne to lose her grip. The trio now fell through the air.

Since Minerva had already retracted her spear, she ended up being thrown off.

As Zara fell through the open air while still attached to Arachne, she thought she heard the sound of something being cut through the howling wind.

Just as abruptly as it had appeared, the tornado was beginning to disappear.

The pair fell downwards together, watching the sky around them clear up.
It had been less than a minute since Zara had seen it last, but she found seeing the world once more to be breathtaking.
A thousand pieces of debris fell to the ground around them, littering the devastated landscape.

Finally, the two crashed into the ground. It was not a graceful landing.

The webs finally weakened to the point where Zara could pull herself free.

"Arachne. Can you hear me? I won't ask anything stupid like 'are you okay', but I need you to at least give me some sign you can still move."

Arachne's legs twitched.

"Alright."

The impalement, followed by hitting the ground, had evidently taken its toll on her. Even in spite of having been secured to Arachne by the web, the impact of the landing had still shaken Zara to the point where it hurt to keep standing. To try focusing on something else, she tried to stop the bleeding from the wound that Minerva had left.

"Huh. Oh." Zara breathed out in exasperation. "But, of course."

She heard a human and a monster walking behind her.
She didn't need to glance back to know who it was.

Minerva and the Kirin were there, barely looking affected.

Zara turned and raised her puppet, studying them both. Earlier, she'd gotten the sense that even though the Kirin was moving it wasn't truly alive. Now it was different. What followed Minerva was now undoubtedly a living creature.

"If it's like that, then that must mean it's not under the same kind of control it was before. Which means that, right now, that's just a normal Kirin. So, is it that unreasonable to make the assumption that after losing control of it, she managed to tame it like one of us would? The normal way?"

She thought back further.

"But I was watching her the entire time, until the wind picked up.
So the only way that would make sense is if she tamed it in the middle of the tornado. Then executed a strategy with that monster she'd just tamed to get the drop on us, while still in the tornado. That's the only way that it could make sense. Should I be surprised? I'm not sure if I should waste my energy on being surprised. But still, I thought that proper partnerships with monsters were our exclusive right. That stings just a little. But I'm not surprised. Of course a genius like her would be a genius at something like this."

As Zara thought this, the Kirin suddenly galloped past Minerva. It was clearly heading towards the two of them, ready to attack.

"Hey, don't finish them off. They can't be recruited if they're dead."

Zara seemed baffled.

"Huh? What did you just say?"

"It wasn't an order for you. Oh, but I suppose I should say. I need to go check on the king now, so I don't have any more time to play around with you. So could you just stay there? I'll come back once I'm done."

"Ah, I see."

Zara felt as though the world around her was slowing down as her thoughts accelerated.

"I see now. I understand everything now. What a fool I was, to not understand it. Truly, now that I get it, I can't see how I could've spent all this time without getting it. No, I think I already did get it. I think I already understood completely perfectly. It was just that I couldn't accept it. I thought that I was accepting it, but I was still clinging onto the piece of wool, hoping to keep it over my eyes."

She wasn't sure if she wanted to laugh or cry. Something was on the verge of bursting out of her, but she couldn't determine what kind of feeling it would be.

"This was a one-sided fight to the death. Only we considered it as such. The only reason we could even slightly keep up was because she was trying to beat us without killing us. So that's how it was. Haha. Hahahaha. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahaahahaha. In the end, that's the only reason I was able to last this long. I mean, come on! A person like her, that can do something she's never done before, in a tornado? I could never compete. She's practically divine, while I'm less than riffraff. I thought I'd accepted that, but I clearly haven't gotten it. I'm not even good enough to be in the same category as that bastard."

Her mind went back further.

"It's always been like this. I'm sure that it will always continue to be like this. That's what it means for me to be me. That's what it means for her to be her. I'm not even enough to stall her, then. That's how it was written from the start. It's a rule of the universe. She'll always excel at these things. She was born to soar. To rise above everyone else. To exceed us all. Meanwhile, this world must only mean for me to be stuck looking up at her. If I already knew that, then why am I so surprised?"

At that last moment, she heard footsteps from nearby. Each step was accompanied by the rhythmic sound of something tapping the ground with it.

Eventually, the source of those sounds came into view. Using his sheathed sword like a crutch, Akem Okino entered the scene.

"Oh? I thought that I could sense a few folks nearby."

"...Akem?"

"Oh, isn't it-" He tilted his head. "That girl. The spider one. You're fighting someone, right?"

"What happened to you?"

"I settled some old business. Now I've got just a tiny bit of time left to kill, so I figured I might as well take as many poachers as I can down. Speaking of…"

Minerva's eyes were fixed on the new arrival. Akem turned to meet her gaze.

"You're one of them, ain'tcha?"

---

Fera Gladius arc part 11: Blossom Spiral

---

After my encounter with that guild knight, several more tried to take me on. By several more I mean something around dozens of them. They swarmed me endlessly, never giving me a break.

I wasn't sure why. He was the one who had asked for it, and he received it. But they didn't accept my explanation, for some reason.

Since they were after my life, and I did not desire death, there was only one choice. Everything was for self-defence.

As I continued defending myself, more came to attack me. So to become safe I continued cutting down any that provided a risk.

This went on for several years.

For several years, I continued without a purpose except for survival.

Wandering wherever I felt like wandering, without any instruction. Eventually, I ended up somewhere in the Frontier Grounds.

Even there, people were after my life.

One day, a band of three approached me, yelling something or other about my death being necessary.

With them were three bird wyverns. One large, two small. Orangeish fur. Sharp looking tails.

The three were organised in the same way, with two small ones and one large one. Each seemed to be paired with a monster.
So technically, I guess it was two bands of three. Or a band of six.

But either way.

I retaliated, and soon they fell quiet.

But, once the last had been dealt with, I heard some slow clapping from nearby.

"And so marks the end of the tale of the much-feared and well-beloved razor weasel brothers. Such a shame that they had to go out like this."

Those were his first words to me.
He appeared out of nowhere, looking ragged. His unshaved face, his bloodshot eyes, all gave the impression of a cornered animal.

And yet, he seemed to be focused on acting dignified.

More importantly than that, he approached me with no signs of bloodlust. I did not feel the need to do anything.

"Oh? You aren't going to attack me? I was expecting to have to at least urgently beg for my life."

"You aren't going to attack."

"Hmm. I suppose that's true. But I am the one who ordered this lovable trio to attack. They were pawns of mine, see?"

"I see. But you still don't seem like you'll attack now, so I don't care."

"You aren't going to retaliate, or anything of the sort?"

"Why would I?"

"Revenge, perhaps? You don't seem to care that I tried to order your death."

"Why should I? I didn't die."

"I see. And you're not even going to enquire about my reason for ordering your death?"

"No. It doesn't matter to me what reason you have. It's your reason, so it's your business."

"So you're saying that it doesn't matter to you at all why someone would wish for your death?"

"It's your reason. I shouldn't pry. That's what I learnt."

"I see. Well, as a reward for your honesty, I'll give you the answers to both why I expected you to want revenge and why I ordered you to be attacked."

He took a breath.

"Most people would assume that someone who once threatened their life will continue to do so. Until they have no reason to continue, or until they can no longer do so. That's what a normal person would think. But that doesn't apply to you, now does it?"

He made a big point out of turning around dramatically.

"That leads us nicely into the second question. These weasels were my beloved pawns. In return for a bit of power, they were serving me. See, after I came to understand everything in this world, I was granted a strange ability. That's why those monsters were fighting with them. Were you curious about that?"

"A little."

"I ordered them to attack you to check something. I suppose I could've just asked, but I don't think words would have been enough. I thought that I recognised you, and I couldn't just let this chance slip away. So I thought that, if you are really you, then three weaklings like this would prove no threat. Lo, and behold! They were exterminated in seconds. The experiment was a So all that's left is to finally ask the question. You're Minerva Manul, are you not?"

"Yes. That's me."

"What I want is to change the world. But the world's resistant to change, so if I'm going to go through with that plan I need fighters stronger than anyone else. That's why, I thought it'd be best to try pitting my first soldiers against a threat like you.

"I don't care that much about you. I wouldn't be a threat if you hadn't attacked."

"Yes. and now that it's over, you don't care either. That's what makes you perfect for a trial run. A threat that isn't a threat, unless you choose it to be. Dangerous enough that I can know that I will be defeated, but with no consequences for losing."

"Huh? I don't get it."

"I don't think you could."

He was smiling, but still looked resigned. I watched as he crouched down to look at what remained of the largest brother.

"See, Juro here never had a single chance of winning against you. He thought that he was the center of the universe, I could certainly tell that much from how he acted, but in the end his belief was proven false."

He then turned away to face me once more.

"This outcome wasn't a result of any mistake or negligence on his part. I'm sure that he tried as hard as he could, every single day of his life. I'm sure that he thought that his effort would amount to something, that if he kept on giving it his all he'd eventually become someone significant. But he just wasn't meant to win, which is why he lost. Just another name to the count, a body on the pile. He never mattered, and now that it's over he certainly won't ever matter again. The same for his brothers, though I've already forgotten what their names were."

He stood back up.

"That's how this world is. No matter how we struggle to change it, the victors are already predetermined. It's something out of human hands."

"Well, that's enough about all that. Sorry, the shock of watching all my followers die must have caused me to forget my manners. I can't just keep rambling about myself and my views, let's talk about you. That's what makes it a conversation, not a monologue. It's boring otherwise. Were you bored of listening to me?"

"No."

"That's right, you wouldn't be. So, naturally, you must have been interested. If someone doesn't have any interest in something, then listening for that long would be boring. But, to be honest, I couldn't feel any interest from you. You're not interested, but you're not bored. Could it be that you can't feel anything like that?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"If you don't get it, then don't worry about it. But please, tell me about yourself. I've always been curious about just why someone like you would go rogue, seemingly without any explanation."

"There was a reason."

I told him everything as it was, from the start. Every single detail he wanted to hear. He remained silent almost the entire time, only interjecting when he wanted more information.

When I was done, he tilted his head backwards to look at the sky.

"I see now. I can see it all now. Like how you can't understand the shape of a mountain while looking up from the base, I couldn't get it just from talking to you normally. But now that you've said all that, I get it perfectly. Alright then. Let's just cut right to the chase. You don't have any emotions at all, do you?"

"Huh? Of course I do."

"Second question. You keep on saying 'huh' or 'what' after everything I ask. But you heard me perfectly, didn't you? So why are you starting with that."

"Because it's a surprising question. When questions are suddenly asked like that, that's what people start answering with. Don't you know that?

"Wrong. People ask things like that in response because they didn't hear what was being asked."

"That can't be true. Have you never heard someone start a question like that, then carry on without repeating?"

"Sometimes people will think they didn't hear the question properly, then after expressing their confusion realise that they understood and answer properly. There's no reason for it. It just happens. It's an imperfection."

"I don't get what you're talking about."

"That's right, you wouldn't. People are full of imperfections. If you'd justified your habit by just telling me that you misheard, or you slipped up, I could've accepted you as one of us. Even a genius could occasionally slip up, I'd have reasoned. But you answered my question as though it was something intentional that I'd simply missed the cue on."

He smirked.

"That summarises everything, right? You can't naturally make mistakes. You could intentionally do it, but doing it right is the default for you. From your perspective, we must be the weird ones. We must be doing everything wrong by choice, because we like it. Things like that way of talking, they're not natural for you. You only picked them up to fit in better. I'm sure that you could never understand us."

"I don't get it. Why are you saying all this?"

"Because I think that you're perfect."

I didn't say anything to that. Even so, he continued on.

"Perfect strength. Perfect speed. Perfect adaptability. This world must've been made for you and solely you. I'll let you in on something, since you could never know it unless you've lived like a normal human would. People will often say things that aren't true. This isn't always because they want to lie, but because they're weak. They're weak, so they boast about their strength. In order to appear better than they really are, they'll say things they don't fully intend to act on. They'll say they'll do one thing to give a certain impression, then never do it. I believe that guild knight you killed was probably the same way. Well, this is all to basically say that weaklings like to talk a lot. The weasel brothers here were that way, and so am I."

He pointed forwards.

"But you… you have no need for such a thing. I'm sure that the phrase 'easier said than done' doesn't apply to you. You can do things as easily as you could speak of doing them. Which is why you never waste time on the latter. For you, I'm sure that isn't a surprise. The only surprising part here might be the revelation that others can't. So that raises the question as to why exactly people ended up like this. See, I have my own theory that I've developed."

He posed in a way that looked pretty overdramatic.

"At some point, people gained the ability to question things. Rather than simply accepting things as they were and never thinking about them, we started to question why that was so. From questioning why they were that way, we started to think of ways to change them. But for everything that we could change, there were some rules that we could never break no matter what we tried. One of those being that the weak will always be devoured by the strong. No matter what anyone tries, that will not change. It seems so simple to fix, but it won't go away. So we simply tried to ignore it, in the hope it wouldn't matter to us after becoming removed from the daily struggle for survival that wild animals face. But all it did was reappear in different forms."

He stared down for a moment.

"We couldn't change it, we couldn't escape it. Every move away seems to only entangle us further into its grasp, like we were entrapped within a spider's web. Since there was nothing we could do, we escaped to words. People started to convince themselves that with enough hard work, the weak could become strong. Then they passed it on, until that delusion became widely held. But you know, all that did was make it that much more painful to accept. With the truth being painful to accept, people only weaved more thorough lies to cover it up. I suppose it makes sense in that way. A truth that entangles everyone that tries to escape it could only be covered up with a lie which equally entangles all those that believe it. But I'm free of that now. I broke free of that lie, and as a reward for accepting the world as it is I gained this power. All so that I could destroy that rule."

He looked back up.

"From the moment you were born, you were already perfect. Because you had no weakness to cover up, you never learnt anything that we lowly humans need. No lies, no excuses, no attachments. As someone perfect, your presence alone is enough to tear away at that lie. When they're at threat of having that safety torn away, they become aggressive. They double die on it, cling as hard as they can in order to not let go. Excuses like how it's a difference in luck, or they're not serious yet, or they just need to have an epiphany. And when all those are finally exhausted, that's the point at which they're forced to face the truth. That's probably why all those who survived you went on to die later.
I certainly can't say this with a hundred percent accuracy, but I think the underlying cause of your problems is the resentment in others that was born from that."

I couldn't really picture it. But when he put it all like this, it did make sense to me. So I assumed that they must've hated me, since I couldn't tell either way."

"Alright."

"You should be outraged."

"But I'm not."

"Of course you're not. But anyone human would be outraged at being ostracised. Either that, or they'd become self-absorbed. Or depressed. There's a multitude of responses that someone should have there, but you don't have any. As we've established."

"...I see. Then what should I have done? What was the right thing to feel there?"

"Who knows? That depends on the person. But if I had to say, I think the best approach is the faux-enlightened one. They can't be blamed for hating you. It's just their nature. I can understand, since I'm weak too. When I heard the news back then, I was certainly outraged too. As something who had almost nothing, it was unfathomable to watch someone with everything throw it all away. But now that I've grown, I can understand. Just as we weaklings are victims of this world, so are you."

"Huh?"

"The weak are born weak. They are born to become sustenance, and nothing else. The strong are born strong. Of course, they can become sustenance too, but their job is to reap everything that they can before then. The weak didn't ask to be born weak, but did anyone ask for their place? It's because you're so strong that your life ended up like this. There's nothing you could've done. In that sense, you're just as much a victim as any of us."

"I see."

When he put it like that, I felt like it made perfect sense. It was the first time in my life that anyone had shown sympathy towards me.

So people hated me because of my strength. Was that the only reason? I couldn't particularly say that I cared, but it was disheartening to hear that the research I'd done into being an acceptable person was pointless from the start.

No matter what I did, I would've been hated. Because that's how the world was. It was a bit strange to have it not feel like I was the one to blame for once. For once, someone else was pitying me.

He continued on speaking.

"Now then, it's about time that I got to the point."

"Despite everything that I've said, I do hate that rule. That's why, now that I've accepted that it's there, I think I can be the one to destroy it. The ability to control monsters can change it. Someone like me with a power like this… I'm a contradiction to that rule. But that probably doesn't mean much by itself. You can see why, can't you?"

"Even with monsters, it didn't make a difference. They still lost."

"Yes. That's exactly it. People are attached to the world as it is. They'll oppose me without really understanding why, simply because I'm bringing something different. So to change the world, I'll have to smash every obstacle in my way first. Now, you're not such a problem. Since you don't seem to care about either side. But there are beings on the same level of you around the world, who will surely stand against me. Numbers wouldn't matter. They'll win because they're meant to win. And that's why I need more powerful followers than these chunks of meat on the ground next to me."

His facial expression shifted slightly as he looked back to me.

"Are you familiar with chess? I like chess."

"No. Never heard of it."

"I see. It's a game of strategy. Both sides take turns to control pieces, one at a time. Placing a piece over another means you take it. And whoever takes the other's king wins. All the pieces have their own rules on how much they can move, but the king is the least mobile of them all. He can't fight, he has to be protected, but without him the whole thing will fall apart. It's a bit presumptuous to compare myself to such an important piece, but I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that I'm quite similar to that king right now. Well, it's just meant to be a simulation. The board is never that equal in real life. I'm facing the world alone, unable to move. Vastly outnumbered, hopeless. Anyway, out of all those other pieces, the strongest has to be the queen. It can do just about anything. I want you to fill that role."

"Oh."

"I'm not saying you have to love me. In fact, it'd be better if you don't. You'll be less useful to me if you're tainted by any kind of emotion."

"...And what do I get out of this?"

"What could you possibly get? You want nothing and need nothing. There's nothing that someone like me could offer you, besides the promise that if you follow me we might change the world. I won't be so presumptuous to ask if you're interested, I know that you're not, but if you're not going to do anything anyway then why not use that power of yours to change the world? If you just come along with me… maybe we'll finally find a world where you can feel something."

---

Minerva felt the small hairs across her body standing up. It was a completely new sensation for her. Looking up at Akem, she could only form one conclusion.

"This man is one of those threats that he was talking about back then."

She had never felt this sensation before, as such she could not understand it. Her hairs stood on end, she could feel her heart rate increasing. Adrenaline pumped through her body.

It was the first time in her entire life that her instincts had recognised another as equal to her.
If he was her equal, then he was a threat.

The master of the blade had caused that sensation, for the very first time.

"I've got to get back and check on the king, but…" Minerva continued to think. "If I leave him be, he could probably topple this entire kingdom by himself."

She readied herself for a serious fight. At the same time, Zara analysed the situation.

"Just what happened to him? We left him near a Kushala, so did he fight that?"

She considered things further.

"Could that have been the cause of the tornado? Just one Kushala? That's ridiculous."

Half of Akem's face was missing, having been sliced off by the wind. His body was peppered with still-bleeding cuts from his previous battle.

It wasn't the same in the slightest. But in the same way that she had felt something was off with Kirin, she felt that something was wrong with him.
He was living, but not alive. His one remaining eye did not seem to be looking at the world, but something else entirely.
Perhaps his mind was somewhere else.

Even so, Zara thought it would be best to warn him.

"Akem, be careful. This is Minerva. She's one of the two with an estimated hunter rank of 999. She's probably the strongest poacher here."

He responded calmly.

"That so? Well, that's no surprise. She's overflowing with life. Enough so that I could sense it from all the way over there. But there's nothing to worry about. See, I'm the man who can cut anything."

---

Minerva Manul.

Estimated hunter rank 999.

The War Goddess.

Akem Okino.

Hunter rank 999.

The sword saint.

The one who was born atop the peak, completely alone.

The one who had spent his life climbing the peak, fuelled by his desire to outdo his rival.

Those two met face to face for the first time.

In that age, there were only a select few hunters who had reached the peaks of strength that those two had.
In total, only a handful stood at the same level as these two.

The reason that Akem was here was in a way, tied to Minerva. It was Rondo's desperate search for a monster to fight with Minerva that had caused him to kidnap Prospero and bring him here, leading AKem to this place.

A weak link, but nonetheless a link between them that had brought him here.

The strongest of the defending side, and the strongest of the attacking side. On such a large battlefield, with neither actively searching for the other party, the odds of them meeting were unfathomably low.

But even so, they were now both standing here.

It was as though the world itself was willing these two to fight.

The only witnesses to this momentous clash were Zara Lowe and Arachne, both stuck on the sidelines.

A second later, their battle began.

The first to make a move was Minerva. With no time to waste, Minerva was the first to set forwards.

The distance between them was reduced to nothing in what seemed like an instant. Her spear became as lightning, ready to pierce through all that dared stand before it.

At the last second before reaching her target, Minerva suddenly swerved to the side.

Zara couldn't understand what had just happened. To her, it appeared as though Minerva had been repelled by some kind of force field around Akem. She knew that was impossible, but she could not see any other answer.

The fight had already progressed beyond her understanding in its opening act.

Only those fighting knew the reason why. At the last second before stepping into the attack's range, Minerva had felt a premonition.

The same instincts that had caused her to recognise Akem's threat before even seeing a single attack on him acted up around. She could tell that if she continued even a single centimeter forwards, she would assuredly be cut in half by his blade.

On an instinctive level, she understood the danger that long sword held. That was why, to avoid her death, she diverted everything that she had into remaining out of the range of the attack.

As she skidded to a halt, she planned out her next move.

"If he cuts me, I'll probably die. I'm not sure why, but that's the feeling it's giving me. My armour wouldn't matter. It can probably cut through that too. If I'm right, then I'll die, so it's for the best if I don't test that. The easiest answer is to wait for him to attack first."

She glanced backwards before her momentum died. Akem hadn't even so much as twitched.

"It doesn't seem like feints will be effective. I'm still in a hurry, so I can't wait for a solution to fall into my lap. If I can't bait him into missing his attack, then I'll just have to let him hit something."

She dashed back to where the Kirin stood.

"Charge at him ahead of me."

The Kirin looked back at her. It did not comprehend the man's strength to the same extent that she did, but it knew that he was powerful. If given the choice, it would never even so much as risk running in his general direction.

But it didn't have any kind of a choice. Its last memories before arriving in this place were of being targeted by a group of hunters, then seeing a comet fall towards them before it lost consciousness.
When it regained awareness, it was in the middle of a strange place. A few seconds later

But even in the middle of that storm, the women still remained calm. She gave it an ultimatum. Without even needing to understand her words, it understood the message.

If it did not follow her, then she would kill it.

Even in the middle of those roaring winds, that message was clearly conveyed to it.

And now, it was the same. It didn't understand her words, but it understood that it was being told to attack that man.

It felt a deep fear from looking in his direction. Almost assured death.

But the price for disobeying this woman would be certain death. Between certain death and uncertain death, the Kirin opted for the latter.

After having decided on that, it turned and began to close in on him.

If Akem attacked the Kirin, then he would be left open for Minerva to follow up with an attack. If he tried to target Minerva, the Kirin would hit him first. That was Minerva's strategy.

"I'm not going to just stand here and wait."

Akem lurched forwards, sword at the ready. The Kirin tried to dodge to the side, but

The longsword cleaved through it from front to back. Thanks to its attempt to save itself, it was only a shallow cut. Nonetheless, it was bleeding heavily.

There were typically a countless number of factors that slowed an attack down. Various forms of friction that reduced the effectiveness of the attack.

Air resistance was one. Another was lacking technique. Any obstacles in the way would be obvious examples.
But most common among them all were the targets of an attack themselves.

Imagine a giant club, swung with exceptional strength towards one target. The air would slow it down, limiting its full power. But upon coming into contact with anything, it would slow down considerably. Regardless of whether that target was sent flying or held their ground, it was still true that the club would slow upon hitting them. The exact degree to which it would be slowed would depend on the difference in size between the weapon and its target, but even if it was so tiny a difference as to barely matter it would still be impeded regardless.

Blades evolved in order to cut.

They became thin to reduce their air resistance. They became sharp in order to cut.

But even that wasn't enough. No matter how efficient the tool grew, it was still difficult to cut living beings.

Inanimate objects can be tough, but that's all they are. The only obstacle in cutting through it would be its thickness.

But for living beings, the thickness was only one of many issues. The movement of the target, areas that were too hard to cut and the guilt of sinking the sword into their flesh.

All of these additional sources of friction.

A good sword was simply not enough to cut. That was the reason that so many had poured their lives into refining their technique. In search of a perfect, unhindered slash.

After almost a century of refinement, after breakthrough after breakthrough, at the border between worlds, Akem's swordplay had undergone its final metamorphosis.

This attack was pure. It ripped through the Kirin as though nothing was there.

It was unburdened by anything.

The culmination of the millions of slashes that preceded it.

It was everything that he had lived to be, condensed into a single slash. His life contained within a single attack.

All that mattered was Akem's technique. It cut through even the air with ease.
The Kirin's flesh, its bones, nothing could slow it down. It cut so cleanly that there was no chance of it getting stuck at the end.

There was no hesitation. The attack continued on without even a fraction of a second of delay.

"I didn't know something like that was possible."

Only a few steps away from the attack, Minerva observed with a feeling of surprise.

"I see. I was wrong earlier. It thought that I'd get a chance to attack when he was done, but that clearly isn't the case. I've never seen a slash like that."

She lacked the time to fully dissect the motion before her, for it was already headed her way.

Akem's slash continued without slowing down. The blade swung around, cleaving through the space in front of him.

She was too close to back out of its range. She wasn't close enough to reach him in time. Going to her left would only hasten her demise. Going right left a chance of survival, but the odds were low.

Considering all of this, Minerva unhesitatingly jumped.

She kicked off the ground, flattening herself out. The sword grazed past her.

Akem's gaze shifted upwards. Minerva looked down, tightening her grasp on her spear.

She thrusted down. Akem retracted his sword in order to deflect her strike.

Minerva landed on the ground and thrust forwards again. Akem shifted himself slightly to deflect that.

The two continued like that at close range. Akem's slashes could not be contested, Minerva dodged around them and struck whenever there was an opening, only to have her spear ever weaved around or deflected.

By conventional logic, it shouldn't have even qualified as a contest.

Seven decades stood between the fighters.
Minerva's speed was near-unparalleled. The toll that time had taken on Akem should have prevented him from keeping up.
They should have been universes apart. But, the two were somehow equal.

It was absolutely, irrefutably true that Akem was slower than Minerva.

But the decades he had spent refining his technique had given rise to a secret weapon.

Minerva performed one final attack, before briefly scanning her surroundings. She spotted what she was looking for.

One pile of rubble stood slightly above the others. Just high enough.

She hurriedly disengaged from the combat and ran backwards, jumping up to the top of the rubble.

"I see, so that's how it is. He's not fast. But his moves have no unnecessary movement. That's how he's able to move again and get started so fast. No extra time is being wasted. So-"

Before she could even start thinking of how to counter this, her time was already over.

The reason that she had jumped this high was to get a breather and to plan her next step. The reason she'd chosen somewhere so high was simple.

As impressive as he was, she had already established that Akem could not move like she could.

For her, this was a simple kick off the ground.
For him, it was an impossible feat.

Even so, that mattered little.

Akem ran over to the pile of rubble that was several times his height.

He grabbed his sword in its sheath and quickly drew it. Faster than anyone's eyes could follow, the sword cut forwards.
As though nothing was there before him, Akem swung upwards diagonally.
The rocks failed to impede his movements in any way. After the cut was complete, the pillar began to slide down. It wasn't fast enough.

He swung again in the opposite direction. The chunk of rock gave way with no resistance. As though he was cutting through butter.

Several more slashes in quick succession brought the pile down to his level in no time at all.

Akem thrust the blade at Minerva as she fell.

She swerved her head to the side, causing it to only graze past her helmet. Minerva then went for an attack in return.

Akem raised his sword to deflect the attack.

Both were wielding weapons only intended for offence. Blocking, deflecting, anything of the sort was antithetical to their specialities.

They settled into that same pattern once more. Akem would swing his sword around, forcing Minerva to dodge. She would retaliate with thrusts, which would be deflected.

It seemed that without any momentum he could not cut anything, so she was safe as long as his sword did not move too far.

Ignoring all the sparks flying through the air before her, Minerva's gaze was solely fixated on Akem's movements.

A slash with absolutely zero unnecessary motion.

She analysed, pulled it apart. With so many attacks being performed in quick succession, she had no shortage of examples to draw from.

Her spear was deflected by Akem's sword. Just as they had dozens of times in the past few minutes.

But this time was different.

A second thrust followed it up with blistered speed. Akem recognised the danger at the last second and stepped back.

The spear pierced the right side of his stomach. Had he not quickly stepped back, it would have run him clean through. Instead, it only cut through part of his side.

But that was far more damage than he could afford to take.

He swung down. Minerva struggled to pull her spear out in time to dodge, leaving herself open to an attack from Akem.

Minerva finally escaped, but not before the blade made a shallow cut through her chest.

As two sides temporarily backed off, Akem thought to himself.

"That was far too fast. She shouldn't be capable of attacking that quickly… is she copying my technique? I see, that must be it. Between attacks, she's ironing out the unnecessary motion. Because she picked up on me doing it, she started doing it herself, while still dodging my attacks. Is she some kind of genius? Ah, that's so unfair. I'm so much more interested now."

He took a second to wipe away the blood slowly trickling down from the cuts on his face.

"Her technique's still far from perfect. That's why she got stuck at the end there. But even still, she's astounding. Her life's growing stronger by the second. I've got to hurry up and settle this fight before she improves so much that she gains the upper hand. If she can just shave off a few more unnecessary things, I won't be able to keep up with her anymore. But it'd be a shame to have to cut things so short, when she's still working them out. But… I'll lose if things stay like this."

Akem sensed something rippling behind him.

The Kirin had recovered enough to return to the fight. Seeking revenge for the damage it had incurred from Akem's slash, it had been waiting for the two to separate enough that it could strike.

The sky above Akem rippled. A second later, lightning came roaring down from above.

He glanced up, watching it tear through the sky towards him.

"I'll lose if she gets stronger? Just what am I thinking? I'm not a goal for her to surpass. I'm not a mountain to be scaled. I'm not a waypoint for her to pull herself higher. I already said that I wouldn't just stand there and wait.. Now that I've come this far, I can reach out to it all."

He did not make any attempt to dodge the lightning. Instead, he raised his sword towards it.

The lightning was drawn towards the raised sword. It should have been an act of assured self-destruction. To Zara and Minerva both, it looked as though Akem was only acting to hasten his own demise.

He alone believed differently.

The electricity hit the sword. But instead of shocking Akem, it reflected off his blade.

The reflected lightning shot ahead of him, striking Minerva.

Had she been able to anticipate the attack she could've dodged out of the way, but the shock of the sight unfolding before her had delayed her reactions to the point that she was easily caught by it.

The bolt of electricity shook her entire body, rendering her unable to move for a precious few seconds.

Time that Akem was not willing to waste.

He dashed forwards, sword ready. Minerva recognised the oncoming danger, but her body would not listen to her.

Akem reached the perfect distance and swung down.

Being a genius at everything, Minerva was a genius at even recovering from thunderblight. She managed to regain control of herself just as Akem reached her.

Once swung, that blade would assuredly cut through anything that was in its path. Unable to deflect, unable to stop its wielder, all she could do was step backwards to just make the attack a bit shallower.

The blade swung down, slicing through her chest. Had she been even a few centimeters further forwards, it would've ended the fight instantly.

Her movements were still shaky. Minerva backed off, trying to find the space to recover.

Instead of pursuing, Akem simply stood there.

"Zara! Can you hear me!?"

"What is it?"

"I need you to pass on a message to the others when you see them again."

"What? Does this matter right now?"

""Of course it does. See, I've realised some things. I'm not a master of anything yet. People only ever claimed that because they couldn't see what lies beyond me. The truth is, I'm barely less of a fledgling than any of you. Now that I've come this far, I can see just how much more there is to learn. Listen well, and engrave what's to follow into your memory. Limits are just a myth! People, monsters, there's no end to the heights that any of us can reach!"

"I seriously don't have a clue what you're talking about."

"I didn't either. It took a whole lifetime for me to work it out. But now that I do, it'd be a waste to keep it all to myself. I'm lucky that you showed up, you always seemed like the smartest one there to me. You kids should work it out in no time. So for now, just stay there and watch. I'll show you a bit of what lies beyond."

"Just what was I thinking, accepting defeat like that?" Akem thought to himself as he stepped forward. "I'll lose if she catches up? That's foolish. If she's going to catch up to me, then I just have to keep going further. Learn from me as much as you'd like. That's the least I can do for you. There'd have been no point in reaching this boundary otherwise."

He found his opponent at last.

"Might as well go all out. Either way, I won't be coming back."

The difference was almost immediately noticeable.

Akem hadn't gained any speed. But there was something about his attacks that was more difficult to avoid than before.

It felt as though the space between them mattered increasingly less with each attack.

He hadn't grown any faster. But every single swing of his blade came closer to hitting than ever before, reducing Minerva's window to counter more with each successive strike.

She couldn't understand why things were going this way.

Even as she shaved away the unnecessary movements, reducing her attacks to their purest form, it still wasn't enough.

It was something that she simply couldn't understand. For the first time, another being's movements were beyond her ability to understand.

Minerva swung again. It ripped through her armour, cutting her side open. She twisted to avoid fatal damage, but nonetheless the wound was a deep one.

It was at the moment she felt the warm blood trickle down her body Minerva made her peace with the fact that she had no chance of winning unscathed. She wished to remain in top form for what potential threats lay ahead.

But after having felt that cut, she understood that reluctance to be hurt was pointless if it still lead to fatal damage in the end.

Understanding that, she set into motion.

For just a moment, she remained still and took aim. Her focus tightened on a single point. Minerva began to grind down everything that she didn't need.

Akem watched, taking a defensive stance. Minerva's life was flowing out of her body into the tip of the spear. In the pursuit of the strongest attack, she was chipping away her humanity.

In that moment, all that she needed was to become one with her spear. To launch the ultimate attack, she didn't have any room to care about anything else.

Akem readied his sword. His opponent was putting everything on the line. It was not that he couldn't interrupt, but that it would've been rude to do so.
Instead, he stood ready to draw at any time.

After several seconds of deliberation, Minerva shot forwards.

If the strikes that preceded it had been like lightning, then this was the speed of light.

Everything needless had been discarded, in order to lower the weight of her soul. A soul burdened with attachments would be weighed down, but believing that she had not even a single one she was easily able to throw her life away.
Any notions of defending herself, or avoiding danger, anything that would be needed to stay alive were thrown to the side to reach that level of speed.

Akem's response was near automatic. The slightest twitch to indicate the start of Minerva's attack did not go missed by him. The feedback from that small signal passed through his body, flowing through his muscles. Thinking that he needed to attack could have potentially caused a fatal amount of slowdown. Therefore, his attack reached the state of being reflexive. The sword went down to meet the incoming attacker.

Akem's judgement was only flawed in one area. He had assumed that an attack with everything on the line would aim to kill in one strike. Considering the angle between them and the stances and both, he reasoned that Minerva would attempt to strike around his chest.

He certainly wouldn't. He valued his life. That's why he wouldn't risk it for anything less.

But that proved incorrect.

As a result, Minerva managed to slide past the sword, but not without losing a chunk of her left shoulder in the process.

She was going far too quickly to change course. This had been her original destination from the start.

Akem shifted his head to the side. Minerva adjusted as much as she could to account for this, still aiming for just one spot.

Her aim had not been to take Akem's life with this attack. It was to shift the situation so greatly into her favour that her victory was assured on the next move.

The only reason that she remained alive was because it would be inconvenient to die. She lacked attachment. As such, risking her life twice was the same as risking it once. As such, she was willing to put her life on the line just to get a single step closer, rather than to go the whole way to victory.

His attacks were dangerous. The most dangerous she'd ever faced in her life. But it meant nothing if they could not land.
Akem's right eye had been critically injured just a few seconds prior to the beginning, by one of Prospero's wind blades. The job had already been half done for Minerva.

She twisted her spear so the blade was horizontal in relation to Akem's head. It skimmed the left side of his face, the area that was cut including his only functioning eye.

Akem gritted his teeth.

After having confirmed that she'd cut it, she quickly backed away. She just needed enough distance to escape his attack range. She considered the possibility that if she waited for too long then her opponent may grow used to his new state and counterattack, which led her to attack once more in a hurry.

She circled around Akem, trying to find a good angle of attack, before closing in.

She sprinted forwards, beginning a thrust at the exact moment she stepped into range.

Until that moment, Akem remained perfectly still. But the second that Minerva's spear went forwards, he whirred into motion once more.

Minerva's judgement too, held only one flaw.

She had been told that people had five senses. That sight was important enough that depriving the opponent of it would typically be enough to secure victory.
She had done exactly as she had been told to, as she had done for her entire life.

It was not a unique belief that she held. The majority of people in the world had no reason to doubt that they possessed no more than five senses. They only used those five, and had no reason to believe in senses that they did not use.

Any other senses would only exist within the realms of fiction. A sense for ghosts, a sense for fighting, any other sense. Whatever they sensed, people could only find them within legends.

Most who read them would easily dismiss them as fiction. Only a few would hold onto the idea that they may exist in reality. Those few would be called delusional, or foolish.

Akem Okino considered himself to be exactly that type of fool. And finally, at the border between life and death, he had found what he was looking for.

Standing there, he could sense life itself. It may have made more sense to call it bioenergy.

He could sense it flowing through every movement that others made.
That which moved living beings

It was only after becoming able to see it that he could interact with it directly.

He himself did not fully understand the mechanics, but he did not need to. He could understand it intuitively.

After all those years attempting to conquer the blade forged from the Worldeater, he could finally make the dragon element his own. With it as his own, he could cut through anything. He was not cutting the target itself, but cutting its bioenergy with his own.

Akem truly had lost his sight as a result of Minerva's attack. But he could still perceive her attack.

The bioenergy that he sensed from her shifted as she shifted into her attack.
As she closed in, that bioenergy shifted.

By stripping away the last of his fading sight, he had been forced to rely only on his newly found sixth sense. But only relying on that had given him an even sharper perception of what was around him.

Therefore, he was able to respond in the same instant that Minerva closed in for the kill.

It did not take long for Minerva to realise that she'd been mistaken, but she still could not understand why he had not been impeded in any way.

As she had at the start of the fight, she recognised that proceeding would result in her demise. She put everything that she had into retreating momentarily.

Akem wouldn't allow such a thing. His attack had already begun.

Deprived of one of the senses he relied on the most, his sense for bioenergy became even sharper to compensate.
In other words. Even more inefficiency was chipped away, resulting in a faster slash than ever before.

The blade closed in on her. She pulled back with all her might, but it seemed to be in vain. Whether she moved or not, it felt predetermined that she would be cut. As though cleaving even through the space between them to draw closer to its target.

The slash did not even leave a sound behind in its wake. It was purely a slash, with nothing else to it.

That was what cut through her right arm.
She barely even felt it. The blade cut so smoothly, without any resistance. As a result, Minerva did not even realise that she had been cut until she felt it detach.

At first, she did not realise that anything was wrong. Both of her hands grasped onto the spear.

Gravity took hold of the severed arm, causing it to flop downwards without letting go of the spear. The arm swung around, its stump now pointing directly towards the ground. The blood that had been stranded within it poured out.

Skin, bones, muscle. All had been severed as though it was nothing. The arm had been sliced in two just above the elbow. The pain of having the inside of her arm exposed to the open air overrode anything else that she was experiencing at that moment.

Even though she was subjected to that torment, her body did not know how to stop. The blood that should have travelled through her arm was being pumped out at an alarming rate.

Minerva was not afforded the time to carefully consider what to do next. She felt herself slipping away.

The sudden loss of the majority of her right arm had completely thrown her sense of balance off. This was further compounded by her spear that she once held with both hands now only being truly clasped by one. She collapsed to the ground, unable to do a single thing to help herself.

Her first priority should have been to adjust her balance and stand back up. But at that moment, something was overriding that. Even though the swordsman was now doing nothing but standing over her, she found herself unable to move.

She wondered if this too, was part of his attack. A strange curse placed upon her by the blade. Something other than just her injuries was preventing her from rising to fight again.

It was the first time that she'd ever experienced anything like it.
Her opponent's metamorphosis was incomprehensible to her. For the first time, she had met another person performing an act that she couldn't work out how to replicate.

She'd spent her entire life able to easily replicate anything that was demonstrated to her, but this was an exception to that.
She'd spent her entire life believing that a blinded opponent would struggle to sense her, but in this case it did not apply.

Minerva could not understand her opponent's behaviour. She could not understand the logic behind his attacks, or his ability to see even without his eyes.

The unknowns were pushing her down, preventing her from standing again. This was what people called fear. She'd heard it described before, but had never truly understood what others meant by it until that moment.

Wild had called emotions something that people only developed to compensate for their powerlessness. He expressed the theory that Minerva had never been granted any, as she'd never been allowed to be powerless.

By that logic, the fact that she was feeling something was proof that she was losing.

That fear must have been all of her senses coming together to the conclusion that the wall before her was truly, undoubtedly insurmountable.

But Minerva did not even recognise it as fear. She didn't know what it could be called. At that moment, her mind recalled what he had told her about the threats on the same level as her.

If she was unable to stand again, then she would lose. The swordsman would go on to destroy everything here.
The world would never change. She would never feel as a human could.

"I wondered if meeting someone stronger than me would make more human, but it seems like it hasn't. I guess, in the end, it's like we originally thought. I need the world that he will bring about. But if this swordsman continues to exist, then there's no chance of that. If I stay lying here, then I'll lose. Will anyone else be able to stop him? I doubt it. Then, there's no other choice."

She finally managed to push through the invisible cloud over her to stand once again.

Minerva was a genius at all things. She'd never once needed to adjust her balance to account for the loss of a limb, or overcome her fear to face down a daunting opponent, but both of those first experiences were no struggle at all.

Wasting no time, she set her mind towards another first experience. To overcome what stood before her.

With her remaining arm, she reached into her item pouch and extracted a small string used for tying potions together. She wrapped it around the stump of her arm in an attempt to stop the blood loss. With that finished, she brandished her spear once more.

Zara thought that her sense of bewilderment had already peaked, but that had been wrong.
She watched, utterly dumbfounded.

The blinded, elderly swordsman.
The newly armless spearwoman.

In spite of the state they were in, they barely seemed affected. If anything, the fight only felt like it was shifting up a gear.

---

The two peaks of strength crashed into each other again and again, trying to cause the other to finally fall.

One side continually attacked, the other continually dodged out of the way.

Even after resolving herself to overcome the enemy before her, Minerva's tactics had not significantly changed in any way.

What she sought was to understand. The moment she could understand why she couldn't imitate Akem's slashes that cut through anything, she would be able to work out a path to victory. That was how she believed that the events would play out.

To better observe his movements, she fought defensively. Dodging, weaving, occasionally closing in to strike back.
She knew that a single good attack would result in her demise.

In response to another incoming slash, Minerva retreated with all her might once again. She didn't even slow down for a fraction of a second, but even so the blade still managed to graze her.

"This isn't right. I keep thinking that I'm out of his range, but he keeps hitting me. It can't be that I'm failing to dodge all of them, it must be something else."

She decided that determining why this was the case was her highest priority, and set out to test it by retreating as fast as possible.

Without even taking a single step forward, Akem swung his sword around.

He did not move from that spot. Minerva did not stop retreating. Yet even in spite of this, the sword still managed to reach her. She jerked out of the way, causing

"Ah. I understand now. He must be cutting space itself. The space itself is divided, pulling us closer together. It's got to be something like that. No matter where I am when he starts, it doesn't matter. The only reason I've been able to dodge is because of my movements just before it hits me."

She studied the blade before her.

"Until now, I've only been focused on trying to get away from him. But if dodging is useless, then that was probably the wrong choice. No matter what I do, he's going to reach me. So let's just go with that."

She backed off again, inviting Akem to repeat the same process once more.

His blade cut through the space itself. He did not move forward. Minerva did not move backwards. The space between them was divided by the blade.

Zara reached that conclusion while watching them. There simply wasn't any other explanation for how it seemed as though Akem was moving forwards while Minerva was pulled in. It was a slash that made the world just a little bit smaller.
That was the only way that she could explain it.

Minerva was pulled in towards the attack once more, but she did not seek to dodge. She pushed forwards. At the moment she sensed that it had reached its limit, she sprung forwards.
Like a spring compressed to its limit and then released, Minerva flew into her attack.

The spear tore through Akem, failing to skewer him completely. Minerva just barely managed to come to a stop, turning for another attack.

The Kirin, which had been staying on the sidelines until that moment, reappeared. It reared up on its hind legs, calling for a blast of lightning to smite the enemy before it.

Minerva recognised this pattern. Instead of waiting around, she rushed in.

Just a few minutes prior, he had deflected the lightning to redirect it to her. She had no doubt that such a move could be used again, which was why she was now closing in.

She foresaw several outcomes. In many of them, the lightning was turned against her. She reasoned that the best way to win was to bear with that damage to deal a fatal attack.

If struck by lightning, her advance would not stop.

Akem sheathed his sword once more and readied himself.

He could sense the lightning rippling towards him, as well as the renewed killing intent of the poacher before him. But he did not feel any fear. Despite all his injuries, he felt no pain. Instead, the majority of what he felt at that moment was gratitude.

Gratitude for the story that had inspired him. Gratitude for the way of the sword. Gratitude for the path that he had taken to reach this far.
And gratitude for his opponent who had revealed his technique's weakness to him.

But, there was something else mixed within. Greed. For he still hungered for further strength.

As the lightning descended, Minerva felt a premonition of oncoming doom.
There was no proof. It was completely unfounded and illogical. But looking at the stance that Akem took, she could feel that something terrible was about to happen.

"More. Just one step further beyond."

So he wished.

The result of that step further over the edge manifested in his next attack.

As he'd done so many millions of times before, he drew his sword. The slash arced horizontally, covering everything before him.

The world around him was torn in half. Everything along the path of the attack was cleaved through.

The lightning was swept away by the slash. All the objects in the surrounding area that dared reach high enough to be in his way were cut down for their insolence. That single slash travelled outwards from him, reaching as far as anyone there could see.

All that, from a single quickdraw. Akem made a half-smile while muttering incoherently.

Minerva lay prone on the ground, which she had dived into after recognising the danger. As she looked up, she had a thought.

"Oh. I get it now. That's what was bugging me. Now I know why I can't copy that. This guy isn't like a human anymore. He's closer to a monster."

The fight continued on like that.

The three rapidly dashed around the battlefield, spending every passing second seeking a way to tear through each other. They continued to ramp up the intensity, never giving the opposite side any opportunity to breathe.

Both Minerva and the Kirin attacked fiercely, trying to break through his defence. But those slashes were simply too much of a threat for them to dare contest.

The two sides danced around death, drawing ever closer to that final moment.

At the peak of his life, Akem Okino continued to attack without even a shred of hesitation.

Domination over the world of swords was embodied by his every move. He continued to cut without end. Stepping forth into a world that he did not know.

---

"His blade cleaved through flesh, bone, metal, even space. It truly was a blade that could cut through anything."

As he looked down at the book that he was holding, Akem's expression seemed troubled. But at the same time, there was a faint trace of delight in his eyes.

"Really, how astounding. I always believed that a state like that could exist, but I couldn't imagine just how amazing it would be to reach it."

He pulled his attention away from the book.

"What do you think? It's not too bad, is it?"

He looked over at his old friend, before receiving a response he wasn't expecting.

"Huh? No, there's no way you could win against it."

Another argument in response.

"No, you can't use not being in top form as an excuse. You were in top form back there! Is creating a massive tornado out of nowhere not enough to satisfy you?"

Another argument. This one seemed to breach Akem's defence.

"I guess you're right. It wouldn't be enough for me either. That's why we ended up spending our whole lives pushing each other further."

Akem reflected on his memories with a serene expression. That tranquillity only lasted a few moments. Every muscle responsible for expressing emotion quickly shifted over to a display of frustration.

"Gah! It really is painful! This life's never gone how I wanted it to! I finally got what I was looking for all along, but only got a few minutes to enjoy it. I want to go further! Now that I've seen all these wonderful things, I want to grasp them myself! But my role's already over! After all this time I spent reaching this point, I was only allowed a few steps! Everything was always just… unfathomably inconvenient like that!"

He sighed, shaking off his frustration.

"But, you know, even with all that. What a good life it was. I wouldn't have lived any other way. Now that I'm here, I just feel grateful. For everything, but mostly this path I've taken. Fighting you… it really was the best."

He smiled at his old friend.

"Now that I've proven it exists, I'm sure it won't take as long for all of them. At the very least, I doubt it'll take their entire lives. Those kids are fast learners."

He looked back at the book.

"That's what I'll hope for. Well, whether I hope or not the result won't change. All I can do now is sit back and see how far they go. Because… it's already over."

He returned to reading the book. His eyes drifted ahead, noticing what was wrong, but he decided to ignore that. Without any hesitation, Akem dutifully read out the final passage within.

"With each slash, the end drew closer. The opponent's chances of victory were cut down with each attack, trapping her further. Until finally-"

The narration abruptly cut off there. The book snapped shut.

---

"You can't be serious. Is this… some kind of joke?"

Zara's thoughts spilled out of her head as a quiet muttering.

The fight had reached a point

Standing there in the middle of it all were the two of them. The Kirin had gotten lost somewhere in the chaos.

Akem stood there, blade still drawn. Minerva was sitting on the ground before him.

Somewhere in that mess of fighting, she must have lost her balance, or something along those lines. Zara hadn't seen it. All she could see now was the outcome.

Only a few centimeters from cutting Minerva's throat was the longsword.

It had stopped that short of victory. Minerva seemed just as surprised as Zara was. As though she'd resigned herself to defeat, only to have that snatched away from her.

The revered swordsman was now completely unmoving. His breathing ceased. The light had left his eyes behind.

---

12:21

Akem Okino, the Sword Saint, passed away in the midst of the battle.

Hunter side: 14 hunters, 7 monsters.
Poacher side: 25 hunters, 26 monsters.

TO BE CONTINUED

---

I didn't think I'd be writing an author's comment this time, but here I am anyway.

Last time I didn't write anything at the end since I thought it'd diminish the impact of the ending of the chapter and I thought the same with this one.

But I have to point out that with this chapter this story has reached a higher word count than its prequel. That's not counting either version of the original story or 0, which would add on a bit, but still it's longer than DBA G now. That's pretty neat I think.
Actually, I'd have preferred to hit that milestone with a chapter that featured at least one of the characters introduced in the first chapter, but oh well.

Back in chapter 26's afterword (which was over a year ago, somehow?) I mentioned that by the time this arc is done this might be the longest story I've ever written, but back then I was thinking it would be the longest by the time it's wrapped up. Now I'm wondering whether this arc by itself will end up longer than G by the time it's done.

Whatever happens happens. I think I have a bit of an unnatural obsession with word count because this website always displays it / my contemporaries back when I was first starting were way crazier with chapter length than I am now.

I plan out a lot of things in advance but the author's comments certainly aren't one of them, so this isn't really a guarantee, but I think that I'm probably gonna stay completely silent at the end of chapters until the Fera Gladius arc is over.