Yuri silently drifted through the endless darkness. Neither his consciousness nor his senses seemed distinct enough to be real. And, bit by bit—a familiar scene surfaced.
“—How about we have a duel, Yuri?” Reilly’s familiar voice echoed in his ears. “We’ve held plenty of mock battles, but this will be your first real duel, won’t it?”
It was finally the day Yuri greeted the Human Tribe’s age of adulthood. For someone to become a duelist, they would first have to reach their designated age of maturity.
Indeed, Yuri could now set forth on the path of his dreams—if only Reilly hadn’t added on an additional condition.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t just send you off to the duel city. Now that Velt’s entrusted you to me, I need to do one last test of your capabilities,” she said as she thrust her beloved black sword out at him. “If you want to go to the duel city so badly, you’ll have to defeat me first.”
Their conversation happened that morning, but now the sun was already beginning its dip beyond the horizon, casting the madder sky in ultramarine.
“...You really don’t know when to give up, Yuri!” Reilly’s impatient voice rose through the sounds of clashing blades.
“Then I got that from you, Master...!” Yuri choked out as his wounds accumulated. His left elbow was bent the wrong direction; his left leg was a bluish purple from a blunt strike. The puncture wound in his abdomen wouldn’t stop bleeding.
Even in such a state, Yuri wouldn’t let the battle end.
“And if I beat you...I get to go to the duel city!! How could I possibly lose!?”
A step in the direction of his dreams. He couldn’t let himself be held back here.
“But...it’s still too soon for you. If you go the way you are, you won’t win against the others. You understand that, don’t you?”
Her persuasive words were overlaid with an even more persuasive kick to the face. But still, Yuri did not go down. He fought tooth and nail against his fading consciousness, concentrating all his might on bracing his feet and keeping them on the earth.
“I don’t want to understand that...!”
He immediately swung his sword at her eyes, but Reilly simply took a step back, and the tip fruitlessly flourished through thin air.
If it was any consolation, the distance of his blade to her was much shorter than the last time he attempted this. The fight simply drew on and on, and Yuri stood no matter what damage he took, forcing Reilly close to the limit of her own stamina as well.
“No one knows who’s gonna win, and who’s gonna lose!”
He stepped in after her, unleashing the strongest thrust he could muster. His resolute display was immediately followed by a shrill clang. A sword was sent flying high into the air.
Reilly leaned down to match his eye level. “But that—makes it your loss.”
In the midst of her proclamation, her sword pierced through Yuri’s heart. The cold sensation of metal was gradually erased by the gush of his blood.
Reilly’s soft words reached his ear. “The stronger one wins, that’s how battle works.”
And...
He forcefully chomped into her unguarded windpipe.
“.........Hah?” A short exclamation before a dark-red liquid overflowed from her mouth.
“If the stronger one wins—you would have never won at all, Master.”
His face was splattered red with Reilly’s blood as he spat out the chunk of flesh he had torn away.
The faded world reverted the moment Reilly’s body slowly hit the ground. Now that the duel was over, Yuri was soon to join her.
“Dear God...winning your first duel by biting out my throat... You’re not a dog, you know...”
“Ahahah! I’ll do anything to win!”
Led along by Yuri’s jolly laugh, Reilly gave a wry smile of her own.
“But hey, that’s why I took you as my apprentice.” She reached out her hand, gently stroking his head. “We mix-bloods are the weakest. We must always fight foes far superior to ourselves. That’s precisely why you must never give up on victory. That feeling is the one thing that can never lose to anyone else.”
Reilly had forged on with that will as a mix-blooded duelist. Starving for victory more than anyone, she had stolen a win from a great many combatants.
“You must never forget that feeling.”
With a soft chuckle, she wrapped Yuri’s fingers around the hilt of her black sword. The sword embedded with her hopes and dreams. Yuri firmly clenched it to carry them on.
“So, Yuri, how did it feel to beat someone stronger than you?” Reilly asked, as one who had stood before him as the barrier going by the name of ‘master.’
“It was...really fun!!” Yuri once again confirmed there was no greater joy in life.
✦ ✦ ✦
The plaza was silent.
Elias’s sword had pierced Yuri’s heart, and everyone waited for the moment the duel would end.
The emotion this scene brought to the spectators was relief. Such ghastly deeds had met their end; the match was settled with a decisive blow to the heart. Elias himself knew that one blow was the last.
“...That’s right.” The clipped words escaped from Yuri’s throat. “I’m going to lose...? Why do you get to decide that?”
A fearsome volume of blood pouring from his chest, Yuri grabbed Elias’s sword edge with his right hand and lifted himself up. His defeat was already certain, and yet his will to fight had not crumbled.
“Your spirit is commendable, but...it’s over.”
Even if he could stand, there was little he could do to stave off death with a pierced heart. Soon the Field would dispel and the world would regain its color.
It was only then that Elias realized something was off. Sure, it took a little time to die from a pierced heart, but even so, this was far too long.
“I can’t miss like this,” Yuri said with another step forward. He pressed his body down the length of the blade stuck through his chest. “If you can’t stand someone, give them a good whack!!”
His fist viciously jut out into Elias’s body.
“......Kah!?”
Spitting up blood, Elias crashed into the ground, unable to make any attempts to recover his footing. Though his brain was jolted by the impact, he frantically kicked it into gear to search out an answer. Nothing came up.
There was no possible way Yuri in his current state could fire off an attack great enough to force a beastman under Release to yield.
“Aah...that was refreshing.” Yuri smiled and stood, watching Elias writhe on the ground. “A mix-blood’s the weakest? The battle’s over before it began? ...To hell with that, why does everyone else get to decide that?”
Unsteady as he was, Yuri never fell to his knees.
“The only one who can decide my battles—that’s me.”
He stood calm and composed, as if to embody those very words. The entirety of his existence was on display, proving they were no fabrications. And, with all to see, Elias finally understood the mechanism that allowed Yuri to exhibit power greater than his caliber.