“I’ll protect Thor!” yelled Shiro.
“Kuro toooo!”
“Huh?”
I could vividly see Shiro’s and Kuro’s movements, as if in slow motion. They’d jumped in, arms spread wide, trying to protect me.
A little ways off, I spotted Carolina lying on the ground.
No! Stop! Why?!
A myriad of thoughts flashed through my head in an instant, but I couldn’t do a thing. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even speak.
As I stood there, helpless, countless black spears pierced through Shiro and Kuro, spraying blood through the air.
“Uh...”
Get it together!
I rushed over and cast holy magic, pouring in everything I had, praying for their recovery.
“Shiro! Kuro!”
“Thor,” said Shiro, “are you hurt?”
“You okay...?”
“Yeah! You two saved me!”
“Myah, good...”
“Arf...” said Kuro, coughing weakly.
You have gaping holes in your chest and stomach! Don’t smile like that!
Shiro’s stomach had been torn clean through, her organs practically spilling out. Kuro was coughing up blood—a clear sign of lung damage. I held my hands over their wounds and kept pouring in holy magic.
Our recovery ability had somehow improved lately, but this time, their wounds weren’t healing as quickly. The damage inside must’ve been that bad. The three of us were drenched in blood, and I just kept burning through my mana.
I can feel them healing, but the wounds won’t close up!
Then I felt it: an explosive surge of mana, like wild, raging waves. But strangely enough, I wasn’t afraid. If anything, it felt like it was coming over us in a gentle embrace.
The mana had come from Geos’s magic sword. When I first saw it, I’d thought it looked like a holy sword, but now, it really was a holy sword. It glowed gold, radiating soft, white mana.
“Haahhh! First Blade!”
“Gaaaggghh!”
Geos charged the lord faster than I’d ever seen him move. The slash landed, same as before, but from there, things went differently—the lord was actually hurting. His wound still regenerated, but it seemed slower than before.
“Gah! That sword is...”
“The magic sword, Brave. It’s been asleep for a while because I’d stooped so low...but it’s finally awakened!”
“Tch! So it does carry the lineage of the holy sword!”
The lord clicked his tongue loud enough for all of us to hear. He probably wasn’t a specialist in combat, so that reaction couldn’t have been an act to catch us off guard; he must’ve been genuinely repulsed. Geos’s sword really was working against him. Now I understood why the lord wanted Geos dead. He knew that sword could hurt him and wanted to kill Geos before it awakened.
Both Geos and the lord sped up even more, the shock waves growing more and more violent. I saw a nearby tree get scarred just from the force of their clash. The shock waves started making the black humanoids disappear too—Geos’s magic sword was working on them as well.
Thanks to that, the encirclement around us broke—
I can’t just stand around here. If we don’t move soon, we’ll get caught in the cross fire. But how am I supposed to move?
Shiro’s and Kuro’s wounds still hadn’t closed, and Carolina—whom I’d pulled over with Mana Arm—was still unconscious.
Then, Milène came rushing over.
“I’ll take Carolina!” she said. “Can you carry the girls?”
“Got it!”
I handed Carolina to Milène, then lifted Shiro and Kuro with Mana Arm. It looked like I could manage moving around like this.
We’d gotten maybe twenty meters away from Geos and the others. I wanted to put more distance between us, but I couldn’t afford to neglect Shiro’s and Kuro’s recovery any longer.
“You two okay?”
“We’re...okay.”
“Fiiine...”
They answered with smiles, but with sweat beading on their foreheads—they weren’t fooling anyone. I left our defense and Carolina’s care to Milène and focused completely on healing Shiro and Kuro.
The battle still raged on in the distance. I could just make out their movements from here, but there was no way I could join in. Geos’s slashes left a golden afterglow as they clashed with the lord’s fists, which looked like black belts whipping through the air. They collided again and again, scattering gold and black particles with each shock wave. The deep rumble shook my entire body. I couldn’t tell if I was trembling from the vibrations or from fear. All I could do was watch the fight between the hero and the monster.
Suddenly, I felt pathetic. I’d thought I’d been protecting Shiro and Kuro, but they were the ones protecting me. And now I had adults protecting me too... What am I even doing?
“Thor, are you okay?” said Shiro.
“Is your mana all riiight?”
They were clearly in pain, but they were still worried about me.
“Don’t worry about me. And what you did was way too reckless, even if I can heal you with holy magic!”
“But you would’ve died if we didn’t jump in,” said Shiro.
“He’s not casting magic anymore,” said Kuro.
She was right. The lord wasn’t attacking us anymore. Since the three of us were huddled together, he probably couldn’t target just me, and the two girls he absolutely couldn’t afford to kill had nearly died protecting me. I was shaken, but so was the lord, no doubt—assuming he still had a heart to feel it.
As I felt the gentle warmth of the girls’ hands in mine, I felt a hazy unrest smolder deep within my chest.
“You’re pathetic.”
That’s true.
“It’s all the lord’s fault.”
If only he didn’t exist...
“It’s because you’re weak.”
Yeah, that’s true too.
I started to feel all kinds of anger—anger at the lord, anger at how pathetic I was. It all boiled up and set fire to the haze inside.
“You thought you’d gotten stronger, but nothing’s changed!”
Right again... I haven’t changed one bit.
“You need to get angrier.”
You don’t have to tell me!
Suddenly, an intense rage consumed every inch of my heart.
Magic cooking? Holy magic? What kind of cheat is that if I can’t even heal the wounds of just two members of my family?