“Hah!” Next, it was Gawain’s turn to counterattack. He swung his black iron sword so fiercely that he sent Caim flying, tearing through the tent.
Caim clicked his tongue. “His swordsmanship is flawless on both offense and defense. What a pain.” And with that, he landed perfectly on the ground with a roll and immediately stood up.
“I won’t let you get away!” Gawain leaped out of the tent, charging at Caim.
“Ouryuu!” Caim struck the ground with compressed mana. He had once done something similar to create a cloud of dust, but this time he had poured even more mana into his strike.
“What?!” Gawain exclaimed as the earth split, sending rocks and sand hurtling toward him. “Do you think that this will be enough to take me down?!” He deflected the rocks with his sword, but he ignored the sand, as it couldn’t hurt him. That created an opening, however.
“Gotcha!” Caim’s objective hadn’t been to actually hurt Gawain, but to conceal himself among the dust and rocks, which allowed him to approach Gawain unnoticed. “Seiryuu!”
A blade of condensed mana stabbed through a gap in Gawain’s armor and cut open his arm, blood gushing through the opening.
“This won’t be enough to defeat me!”
“Who said I was done?!” Caim kicked off the ground, leaping into the air. Using the scattered rocks as footholds, he jumped in all directions around Gawain.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!”
Caim showered Gawain with countless slashes as he circled around him. While the Black Knight was a fearless warrior who had experienced plenty of battles, he had never fought against someone coming at him from every angle at high speed. He was unable to defend against everything, and little by little, more cuts appeared on his body.
And yet...
“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!” Gawain would not yield. He swung his sword down with all his strength, blowing away the sand and rocks, forcing Caim to retreat.
“Man, you’re really something...” Caim grimaced. He had wounded Gawain many times—certainly enough to defeat most opponents. But Gawain did not fall. He truly was absurdly strong.
“The feeling is mutual. Truly, the vigor of youth is astounding!” Gawain was just as impressed by Caim’s potential. Caim was clearly improving as the battle raged on, learning how to react to attacks he couldn’t have handled before. He was rapidly closing the gap between them. Caim’s youthful radiance was too dazzling for the old veteran.
“It’s too dangerous to let this fight drag out much longer... My next attack shall be the last!” Gawain declared.
“Yeah, our next clash really is gonna be your last,” Caim replied with a sardonic smile.
Gawain frowned. The next instant, his body was paralyzed by numbness. “This is...!”
“I told you, didn’t I? That I was the Poison King.” Even Caim’s mana was poisonous, and he had cut into Gawain’s body with it several times. Each new wound had added more toxin, and eventually there was too much even for Merlin’s Antipoison to counter it. “That poison could immobilize a wyvern. If you move carelessly, you’re gonna die.”
“...This won’t matter. I should have enough time to kill you,” Gawain answered. The poison had given Caim the advantage, but there was nothing more dangerous than a wounded beast. Even as the toxins spread throughout his body, Gawain’s fighting spirit only grew stronger. “This shall be my last battle... So that Prince Arthur will become emperor, you shall die here and now!”
“I’m not good-natured enough to say ‘yeah, sure’ to someone who wants to kill me... You’re the one who’s going to die!” An overwhelming amount of mana erupted from Caim like a volcano, engulfing his body. “Toukishin Style Secret Stance—Shiyuu.”
Caim had used his strongest technique, filling his body with ultimate power. He was truly going all out now.
“I shall kill you and offer your head to Prince Arthur!”
“No, I’m gonna kill you. I don’t think any of my lovers would want your head, though!”
Gawain readied his black iron sword, and Caim clenched his fists.
Then after a moment of silence, the two of them kicked the ground so hard it caved in beneath their feet, and they leaped at each other.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
“OOOOOOOOOOOOH!”
Purple and black crossed before they landed, their backs to each other.
Silence stretched on for a few seconds, until finally, Gawain spoke. “His Highness called Princess Millicia the goddess of victory, and he was right. We lost the instant we failed to capture her back in the imperial palace.” And then, he began to vomit blood before collapsing onto his back.
“Bravo. That was damn impressive for a last-ditch effort,” Caim said with a pained groan. He’d been slashed diagonally across the chest. Even though he had used Shiyuu, forcing all of his chakras open and covering himself in an overwhelming amount of mana, his defense had still been pierced by Gawain’s blade.
“Caim! Are you well?!” Millicia ran up to him, having observed the battle from a distance.
“Don’t worry, it didn’t reach anything vital.”
“I can see your ribs! This is a grave injury!” Millicia quickly began to heal him with her Sacred Arts, slowly closing his wound.
At that moment, the mage in a sensual robe—Merlin—approached them. “So he lost, huh?”
“Are you gonna be next?” Caim asked.
“I told you, didn’t I? I’ve used up all of my mana.” Merlin raised her hands.
Caim noticed that her fingertips and the end of her hair were crumbling into dust. “What the...?”
“I’m far older than I look. I extended my life with magic, so naturally, I can’t keep living without mana.”
Merlin’s body was slowly disintegrating, starting from her extremities. First her fingers, then her hands, then her arms—gradually, she was turning to dust. And yet, Merlin ignored all of that and knelt next to Gawain’s corpse. Drawing her face close to his, she planted a kiss on his lips.
“You did your best. I’m very proud of you,” she said lovingly to the other Twin Wing. “This isn’t the perfect ending I imagined, but it’s good enough. After all, the reason I’ve lived this long is so I could die with you.” Being dead, Gawain didn’t reply, but Merlin didn’t mind. She simply continued. “I love you, Gawain. I’m glad we could die together.”